5 AQUASCAPE STYLE TO IMPROVE YOUR HOME LIVING

In short, aquascaping is the art of creating an underwater garden or 'aquascape' in a tank or ship with water plants and other materials, with or without fish.
Aquascape tanks are more than talking to show off beautiful plants and unusual fish - these art experts are able to create qualities that are almost dreamlike, smooth in scenes, that when you look into this tank, you feel like you have been transported underwater into underwater parks, dreams with 'trees', hills and fields, all to scale and with complex depth and detail.

There are several types of aquascape styles :

1. The Dutch Style
The Dutch Aquarium style does not necessarily imply the use of wood, stone and other hardscape materials, does not mean that they are not allowed to be used. It is preferable to choose only one type of material: wood or stone, or artificial decoration. If you choose for one of them, you must use only that. If you choose wood, you should only use wood of the same type, for example: only manzanita wood, only Malaysia driftwood, only America driftwood, etc. 

You can use plants from all over the world, but you only have to choose species that have the same demands regarding temperature, light, and water quality. About 60-70 percent of plants must be all green and the rest may have other colors. Combine plants with various leaf shapes and colors.

Knowledge of the plants is extremely important to realize a good design of the aquarium. You need to know if a plant is a foreground plant, a middle plant or a background plant or even carpet plant. You must know whether a plant grows quickly or slowly. You need to know whether a plant needs a lot of light or just a little light. In addition, you also need to know whether the plant already has its submerse shape, or has been grown above water (immersed). Real water plant or is it marsh plant. In conclusion, The Dutch style is hard to maintain and very challenging to implement. But the result is outstanding.

2. The Iwagumi Style
The Iwagumi term comes from the Japanese ‘rock formation’ and it refers to a layout where stones play the leading role. Rocks provide the ‘bony’ structure of the aquascape and the traditional geography is a design made of three main stones, out of which one large headstone and two small others.
The most difficult task when it comes to the Iwagumi aquascape style is to obtain that harmony and unity through simplicity. The Iwagumi is not about just collecting a number of stones but about placing them in a fluent, natural and spacious way so that they are related both to each other and the rest of the scape.

Among the most popular stones used for this type of aquascape are Seiryu-seki, Maten and Shou, but there’s no actual limitation. The aim is to build a group of rocks that are similar in color and texture, yet different in shapes and contour.
Although it seems simple and easy to maintain, The Iwagumi style is one of the hardest if you want to maintain, since it needs to be balanced (it's hard to reach) and requiring us to pay attention to details in trimming, planting, life-support indicators, etc.

3. The Jungle Style
This aquarium style tries to emulate some sort of jungle. The key to this aquascaping style is the wild, lush, uncontrolled appearance. From all aquascaping styles this is the less intensive one in terms of maintenance. Everyday plant trimming is not needed, as you don’t want to give the impression this aquascape is hand made.

The fun thing about this style is that there are no rules. You can choose the plants you like, although the most used aquarium plants for this style are tall, large-leaved plants. They can be bold an big, not like the Nature aquarium style, where you go for clean lines and fine texture.

4. The Biotope Style
This style seeks to perfectly emulate a natural environment, including water conditions, flora and fauna species, and even the hardscape of stone and/or driftwood. These can be quite beautiful, and are useful for some biologists to study environments that would otherwise be a challenge to study.

Oddly enough, these tanks are usually somewhat easier to setup and maintain, since there isn’t any research needed to determine whether the flora and fauna you’re using are compatible—they exist side-by-side in the wild.
It fits perfectly with beginner aquascaper.

5. The Nature Style

The term Nature Aquarium was around before the word aquascaping was created, it was made famous in all the world by Takashi Amano.The concept of the Nature Aquarium describes the design style created by Takashi Amano as well as his general view of the relation of humans with nature. The term Nature Aquarium is somewhat misleading, though, as this style does not describe a so-called biotope aquarium, where you try to build a fish habitat as true to nature as possible. In a Nature Aquarium, an underwater world is created.

The Nature Aquarium style is based on natural sceneries and differs explicitly from the so-called Dutch style. Amano used to call this style "flowerbed style" — a term that suggests that these aquaria are very much designed to meet certain human expectations and aesthetic concepts. They are usually colorful and geometric and tend to look rather artificial.

If you’re just starting the aquascaping and do not managed to have a lot of time to maintain, then the Jungle or Biotope style will suit your preference, but if you want some challenges, Dutch, Iwagumi, and Nature style will be the choices. It’s up to you and yours only!

Don’t forget to use the aquascape for improving your home living, giving you an abundant positive energy to start your day or even giving you so much calm when the moon arises.

For the next post, we will giving you detail to each one of the styles above.

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