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Well I think the concept of Aquascapeing is miss understood.

It doesn't mean as a rule that you are talking live plants, it doesn't refers to reef keeping either. The term goes way beyond that, as an hybrid term that comes from landscaping, it refers to the general design of the look of a space, in this case, a tank.

So there are people who love live plants, driftwood, stones, rocks, caves, pots, etc. there are other who don't like all of the above and they prefer plastic ornaments or other aquatic paraphernalia. IT'S OK!

As most wonderful things in life it all depends on personal taste and aesthetics, and we all have to keep an open mind to other peoples tastes and proposals. As any kind of "scapeing" (city, land, aqua, garden, etc.), there is a proposal for every one and everywhere therefore they are valid and respect worthy.

So I would like to see this section visited more frequently by people that don't necessarily have live plant set ups, or even plastic plant ones, but by all people that dare to be different and consider that a sculpture could be the theme of their tanks, I once saw a Dali themed tank that was actually awesome!

Maybe as in life the more tanks and themes we see, the more opened our minds will become.



[span class="edited"][Edited by Falstaf 2004-07-12 02:53][/span]

dunno wether or not we are meant to reply to this . but i totally agree. kudos to falsaf. People should try to be open to other peoples opinions in all matters not just aquascaping. its the stubborness of human nature that makes us all reluctants to accepts things that we do not agree with. IMO a tank tank with neon pink gravel and funky ornaments can be as beautiful as a takashi amano underwater jungle, in its own right. beauty is in the eye of the beholder

[span class="edited"][Edited by Spiderman 2004-07-05 20:31][/span]

Sure!! all answers are welcome.

I was just getting a little tired of reading people that think that if their tanks aren't planted then they didn't have anything to post in this thread, as Babelfish says, aquascaping is all about design, not content.

So it will be awesome to read what everybody thinks.

Hey Falstaf, I'm afraid I'm one of the closeminded people who don't particularly like "unnatural" looking tanks. However, I do agree with your definition of aquascaping. Some people may indeed love their tanks that are build according to a certain theme. One example (which I particularly hated I must say ) was some time ago when someone asked a colleague of mine to help him set up an aquarium. This person had an obsession with black and white, he only wore black and white and his house was decorated in black and white. My colleague thought that a tank would make a great colorful addition to the house and maybe and gave the guy some good advice. Some weeks later my colleague went over to his place to see how the tank was doing. This was the result: a tank which had the sides painted white, had very bright light lamps, and had white substrate and a couple of black rocks. In the tank was a school of 15 black mollies, which were looking very unhappy.

The tank obvously fitted very well in with his furniture and decoration, but my colleague was shocked and horrified. It may be aquascaping, but I will never like it. Anyway, like I said I am a bit closeminded about aquariums in general and always try to keep mine as natural as possible, though in Dutch we have a nice saying that applies here, roughly translated it makes: "you can't argue about taste". I think I'll leave it at that. You people have fun with designing your tanks and I'll try not to force my opinion onto you.

Excellent topic for discussion Falstaf .

had very bright light lamps, and had white substrate and a couple of black rocks. In the tank was a school of 15 black mollies, which were looking very unhappy.

While that might have worked as a decoration, IMO no matter how well laid out it was it's still not acceptable as aquascaping. Most people have seen the film Beatlejuice, think to the two ways the house looks both are designed but in one some people just didnt' feel comfortable. Design in general, no matter how well it's done needs to be comfortable.
If you design your living room in one way, but it doesn't feel comfortable you'll never be able to relax. I think the BIGGEST problem with the above mentioned white tank is that the fish werent comfortable. Might it have been pleasing to the owner, possible, was it a good example of aquascaping, my opinion is NO.
The needs of the fish need to be met first, then the desires of the owner. It would be like designing a tank for corys with no hiding spots, or a tank for a clown fish that didnt' have anemone in it. Aquascaping is really all design, but design has to fit the needs. The "white tank" that Bonke mentioned could have been much much nicer if it had white sand, "bleached" driftwood, a few dark stones (maybe an obsidian "cave" but with smooth sides) and the mollies....a desert fishtank.

^_^

Like i said in chat, there should only be one or two categories for the aquascaping contest.

"Aquascaping is all about design, not content."

-- Gomer

Hey Bonke, I never said or implied that people who like "natural look" on their tanks where "closeminded people", in fact I do prefer natural look, and like jungle planted tanks, which someone could and had considered a "plant promiscuity" (hey! someone in this house had to be one!), some consider them awesome, never the less I love them that way. And to mention another case, I really don't admire and venerate Amano tanks, I mean I respect his technique and art, but he's not my favorite, and he's considered the ultimate planted aquarium guru, just a matter of taste and opinion.

What this thread was all about is to invite people with different tastes in aquascapeing to join this section and not be afraid of showing their tanks even if they are "unnatural" which I think in a tank case could not be possible (you have water, you have fish, you have light therefore they are natural). A rock layout could be an awesome visual and natural layout for example, and I'm not even mentioning my opinion on plastic ornaments and bubble driven gadgets, but they are as valid as any other visual proposition.

So, I hope none of you take this personally it was meant just as another opinion, and not a personal attack on any style or comment.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Falstaf 2004-07-06 23:38][/span]

NOTE: this is not about the contest it was just random thoughts.

Yep i know, i was just linking it to the contest.

-- Gomer

well, i'm a bit of both.

i like natural setups, but i mean, what is natural to some of the fish i keep would be highly unpleasing to the eye (i dont want my axies in mud for starters) so i try to compromise.

I have a bunch of garish decor that i use occasionally, but never on skitty fish or fish that are wild type/wild caught, more the tank bred/can take anything types, and i certainly avoid white gravel, that must have been awful!

I don't know, i think i would call my style "inspired by nature"

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Falstaf, don't worry, close-minded is a title I gave myself and I don't think I can really offend myself now do I ?

I don't really want to go into the whole "what's natural" debate, because the argument will always end up with people saying that the idea of having an aquarium is unnatural... and I guess they're right. I always like to keep my tanks as natural as possible, personally I can't stand those sunken ships, no fishing signs, etc. The reason why I have aquaria is to get a bit of nature in my house, because I love being out in the nature and it's easier to do that in my own living room. I can hardly call my tanks natural, even if I only have stuff in there that would you would encounter in the wild... just the fact that I've mixed stuff from all over the world makes it unnatural... in my eyes it's pretty though and I think my fish can "feel at home"... of course there is always the debate of how much at home a fish actually can be, but again, I'm not touching that... too hot a topic.

have fun aquascaping

To address Falstaff's original point about getting non planted people (that almost sounds like some kind of weird hobbyist racism) involved in the aquascaping forum. I think the main problem is that most people associate aquascaping with aquatic gardening. They're not the same thing. It's possible to have a tank full of gorgeous, well growing fantastically healthy plants but if they are all just lined up in a straight row it's going to look like crap.
I think the point is proved by the answers so far,we are all of the same mind "I prefer a planted to sunken ship type set up, but not knocking the sunken ship" , myself included, I would always choose a plant over a plastic treasure chest, my point is, as Falstaff said, it seems to be only the planted people who visit this forum.
But of course, as always, it brings up other points of debate - which is a good thing, these forums could always use a few more intelligent posts !
And I agree with an earlier poster, actually it's a point I made in the thread about the competition, yes you can argue the merits of the design of a fake tank against the planted tank, but you cannot compare the efforts involved in the two. A well aquascaped fake tank can be done in a couple of hours, a well thought out design using real can take months so they do have to be judged in a different way.
In terms of pure design there's no right or wrong, it's all in the eye of the beholder. Yes, there are "tricks" and guidelines which can help us create something pleasing to anothers eye, but at the end of the day one man's meat .......I've seen planted tanks that look awful and I've seen fake tanks that look awful. But almost all the tanks that make me go wow are planted. Which leads me to think That if somebody can design a tank with pink gravel or a sunken diver with bubbles that makes me go wow I'll put them at the top of the class for designing skills.Cos it's darn sight easier to make an amazon sword rather then a sunken ship look attractive ( it's just the sword needs week's of TLC and the ship just needs to have the wrapping removed).

If anyone has any doubt that fake plants can look good or "natural" have a look at our own competition. John Stones's entry last month made me go wow and i thought it was a beautiful tank - all plastic.

Ok I've talked myself in circles, one last thing - Amano, natural? No. Beautiful? yes. Contrived? Most definately!

Great thread !

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Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

I think the real problem is the people who tend to put in a massive amount of time and energy into their tanks tend to go with live plants or reef styles. I also think that if someone were to put in massive ammounts of time and energy into fake planted or ornamental tanks that they could be gorgeous as well. A good example as stated above was john stone's tank which looked to me that he put in over an hour of work to get it right. Finding a nice ornament amongst the mostly hideous(IMO) ones could be considered an art.

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