Let’s move on from what we have discussed earlier on aquascaping.

1. Imagination
Imagination is the key to aquascaping.
Get the pictures of available aquatic plants and aquarium accessories into your mind. Try to combine them in several ways. If you are not able to do this, you’d better start with copying a tank you like. With time you will find it easier to do your imaginative work -you’ve got your picture? Well, then let’s go.

2. Choosing a background
There are some different ways of choosing a background. Some people use cork, others wood, some paint the background and some use self adhesive foliage. No matter what you do: as long as you don’t want your tank to stand in the middle of a room, give it a background. It is very unnatural to see the wall with all the hoses and cables shining through the tank.

When painting, or using foliage: You’d best use black or blue. This will give your tank a wonderful contrast and also make it easy to concentrate on the tank itself. You don’t want the people to focus on the background, just because it is red?

3. Choosing your substrate
It is unlikely that your aquascape will look natural when you use pink, blue or bright green gravel. You’d better choose brown, gray or black. There are many different types of substrate that will assist your plants in growth.

4. Choosing the shape of your future layout

There are several composition types:

The concave setup (high on either side and low in the middle)

The convex setup (the opposite of the one above, so low on either side and high in the middle)

“Convexity” doesn’t need to be produced by aquatic plants only, as you can see.

The triangular setup (high on one side, getting lower to the other)

The rectangular setup (high everywhere). This is the one you should avoid. It doesn’t give you areas of free space. But these are very important to create an illusion of depth. So less sometimes is much more.

5. Choosing the accessories
For a long time, aquarists where looking for the perfect (beautiful) piece of driftwood, or stone. Then they placed it into the planted tank, and…. well, it didn’t look satisfying, did it?

Especially when making a setup with stones it is much more important to use different sizes of the same type, than just take one very beautiful stone. One single stone in a tank will always look artificial, but when you place two or more, that’s what you usually see in nature. OK, OK there is Ayers Rock, but it doesn’t actually look natural, does it (sorry to the Australians, didn’t mean to offend you).

Now take your stones or your driftwood and place them in a triangle (if they are at least three). The biggest one (if really big enough) usually is the main focal point, so take special care where to place it (see golden ratio in main focal points in the following chapter).

Never use different type of stones or driftwood. You can gather the ugliest stones you can think of. They just have to be the same type. Place them correctly in a group: I promise, they will look nice (don’t know if it works for red-bricks though)!

6. Setting the main focal points
To get a smooth aquascape you need to set one or at maximum two focal points. This is usually something that pleases your eye. Either a stone, or a piece of driftwood, or a beautiful (group of) plant(s). This is where the golden ratio comes in.

You sure have tried to put the most beautiful of your aquatic plants right into the middle of your tank. Well, it didn’t look too good, right? That’s because when you have a symmetrical aquascape, your eyes tend to wander from left to right and back, forth and back…. This is not the relaxed atmosphere you are looking for when you sit in front of your tank and watch it for hours.

Greek philosophers and mathematicians found out long ago: the best ratio that pleases your eye is 1:1.618. Eeeeh????? To explain. When you drink your coffee, you mix one part of milk with 5 parts of coffee (just as an idea) You have a ratio of 1:5. So when you place your focal point, you divide your tank length into two pieces. One has the ratio of 1.618 and the other the ratio of 1.

How to do that??? Very simple: just measure the length of your tank and divide it through 2.618. Take the result and measure it from one side of your tank. Mark it. The rest is 1.618 (no math there). This is the place for your very special centerpiece, focal point or whatever you call it.

It is not wise to have two centerpieces in relatively small tanks (under about 60gal). Never try to create more than 2 focal points.

7. Foreground, Midground, Background
To get some depth into your tanks it is most important to use low growing aquatic plants. It is not particularly necessary to have high growing plants as well, because you can have hills or higher stones and driftwood that fulfill their demand. If you don’t have either stones, hills (terraces) or driftwood, you need higher plants as well to give a fine background.

Amano often uses Riccia fluitans and glossostigma elatinoides. While the second one can really be a challenge sometimes even for experienced aquascapers, Riccia is quite easy to cultivate. It is a floating plant that needs a little care.

Hairgrass (eleocharis) is another plant used very often as a foreground. Note: Glossostigma and Hairgrass must not be planted as they come from your lfs. Divide them into very small bundles, and plant them separately. This will make it grow in faster and also reduces the risk of decaying. After planting Hairgrass, prune the plant to a height of about ½ - 1 inch. Eleocharis is grown immersed (above water) in plant nurseries. Until the new shoots will appear, the old ones will rot and get infested with algae.

8. Planting order
First you plant (place) the focal point. Then the lowgrowers and midgrowers and in the end the high plants. Try to always plant very dense.

Especially stem plants are a good way to form your aquascape. Many small leaved species, such as micranthemum micranthemoides, m.umbrosum, mayaca sellowiana or rotala indica to just name a few, can easily be trimmed to a desired shape. But therefore you have to plant it quite dense as I stated. Take two to three stems and plant them with tweezers. About an inch beside: plant the next bundle of two to three stems, and so on. The denser you plant in the beginning, the faster the tank will grow in. Especially in the initial stage it is wise to cut the tops, replant the cuttings between the old ones while you leave the rooted parts in the substrate. So you can easily propagate your plants. The rooted parts will bud new shoots within short time.

9. Plant leaves and colour
It is always wise to use aquatic plants with different leave size and/or color. This again will create more depth and naturalness. If your tank is not too big (under 60gallon) it is wise to mainly use plants with smaller leaves. That will make it look much bigger than it actually is.

Red aquatic plants (e.g. Red tiger lotus) tespecially can help you give your tank more contrast. But be aware: If you use one single red plant it will again work as a focal point. If you already chose a stone to be a focal point, you may get too much tension into your scape and your eyes will wander from one focal point to the other.

10. Fishes
You shouldn’t add fishes right from the start. There are many articles on fishless cycling in the net. IMO (and not only IMO) it is better to choose schools of small fishes than just a few different big ones. A huge school of tetras or rasboras will make your tank look much bigger (especially on pictures you want to take part in an aquascape competition, don’t you?!?).

Choose fishes that won’t disturb your aquascape. Many species tend to dig, not good for your foreground carpet as you can imagine .Also keep in mind that many fishes that are small when you buy it may easily grow to the size of half your tank. This is neither good for your aquascape, nor for the fish, so ask and READ before buying. Sometimes it is better to read, or ask in the net, because many lfs just want to sell. A bargain which was said to stay small may easily grow to size of a small shark.

11. Maintenance
Setting up an aquascape is one thing, but maintaining and enhancing its beauty is completely different. Only regular pruning and water changing as well as getting the right balance of nutrients/light/CO2 will make you achieve your goal. Sometimes when your aquatic plants grow in, you may even have to change a group of plants, cause it doesn’t look like your original imagination. You just have to give it a try and believe in yourself.

This article is contributed by Birgit Fruehwirth

In recent years the term aquascaping has become better known by aquarists all over the world. The big man from Japan, Takashi Amano started with his books, a new style in aquaristic art. The simple gathering of aquatic plants, beautiful stones and driftwood is no longer the goal of many aquarists. Aquascaping has become a valued art.

This article is based on the style and ideas of the Nature Aquarium, combined with my very own opinions and experiences. It is always a question of personal preferences on what type of aquascape you try to achieve. Many people just love those good looking Japanese aquascapes, but they don’t feel able to achieve it. It is not a question of experience whether you can do it or not. It is no more difficult to have a beautiful Nature Aquarium than it is to have a normal planted tank. It is just the careful selection of aquatic plants and accessories that makes the difference. So many people just don´t have enough self confidence to try it. This article will give you a very compact guideline. Follow the rules and you will achieve your goal.

Amanos Nature Aquarium (NA) is often misunderstood. It is not the aim of the NA to reproduce nature biotopes of special regions. It is more the goal of creating an underwater landscape. A landscape seen before in real nature, not under water.
I myself started, trying to copy some of Amano’s works. But soon I realized that you couldn’t copy anything that has to do with living beings. Nevertheless it is good for practicing to start with copying an aquascape you really like. You will automatically use the right plants, place the stones correctly and create some free space, which will give your tank more depth of field. With time, you will develop your own style, and sometimes you will like it even more than the one you tried to copy.

Then you start your new setups by thinking of a landscape you once saw and really liked. This may be just an accumulation of stones in the mountains, or a huge clearance in a wood. Everyone has his own preferences, so everyone will choose another landscape and get his own style.
In Nature Aquarium, plants AND fishes are the centerpiece of a tank. In providing the best conditions for your plants to grow, you usually do the same for your fishes. When the plants have everything they need to grow well, at the same time they provide the best conditions for your fishes. Plants use up excessive nutrients in the water that may cause Nitrate levels to spike, and they produce oxygen, which is indispensable to the life of fishes.

If you wish to know more about creating those beautiful aquascapes you have seen in books or on the net and you never thought you could achieve, please read on more on aquascaping with aquatic plants here.

There is nothing better than having live aquarium plants in your fish tank at home to provide your fresh water fish with an environment as close to their natural habitat as possible. Many an aquarium plant has to take root in the substrate. But you also have live aquarium plants that float in your fish tank.

- Floating aquarium plants provide quite a few benefits.

- Most floating aquarium plants are extremely good at adding oxygen to the water.

- Next, they give cover to fish that swim at the upper level.

- Floating aquarium plants also serve as a hiding place for young ones and offer space for new eggs to attach to plants.

Among the most often used floating live aquarium plants we have:

1. Crystalwort: Scientifically called Riccia fluitans, Crystalwort is a floating aquarium plant that is bright green and grows very thickly. It is very much like Java moss. The leaves give shade to the aquarium fish which dislike too much light and provide cover to the baby fish. If a lot of light is made available, this plant grows pretty quickly.

2. Hornwort: Scientifically named Ceratophyllym Demersum, hornwort is a live aquarium plant well known for its oxygenating capabilities. Its stems are bushy with plentiful leaves that are narrow and grow round the stem in a spiral. Although you can root this plant in the substrate it grows extremely well when left loose to float. It is quite tough and grows as long as two feet.

3. Water Sprite whose scientific name is Ceratopteris, comes in a range of different types. It grows easily in various light settings and can reach a length of twenty inches. It has a strong stem and leaves that are slightly lobed and grows like a mat when floating.

4. Azolla is popularly know as floating fern or fairy moss, Azolla is a small plant that flourishes into a mat of dainty leaves. Most commonly planted in ponds in the backyard, it grows well in your fish tank at home using suitable water and lighting conditions.

5. Anachris is scientifically called Egeria Densa. It’s the most popular due to its easy growth, durability and fast proliferation. Bright green leaves grow in spirals and look beautiful. It also provides a little snack for the fish.

Source for your favorite planted for your tank today. If you need some quick guide, read up on how to setup planted tank here.

David
AquaticMagic ~ Grow Happiness

Aquatic plants require the same vital elements as soil-based flora. An aquarium plant needs food and sunlight to convert that into energy for use by the plant. They also need the proper balance of trace chemicals in the water which the aquarium plants will absorb into their leaves. Sometimes this balance is achieved during the original planting, but sometimes adjustments will have to be made.

Here, you’ll find some worthwhile tips which will help you grow live aquarium plants.

Using aquatic plants helps your tank maintain a viable ecosystem. They absorb waste products given off by fish, and re-oxygenate the water. Aquarium plants also help to prevent algae growth by using the nutrients that algae would use, and filling the natural formation of photosynthetic flora. Tropical fish, by instinct, hide around and among aquatic plants, so having them in the tank promotes healthy fish as well as a healthy environment for those fish.

All flora requires ample lighting. Aquarium plants need from 8 to 12 hours of sunlight or artificial light every day. Natural sunlight is always best, tank lighting is an alternative. Be sure that the tank is set up in such a way that this is available to aquatic plants, but also provide shadowed recesses for nocturnal fish, such as catfish. Too much light will promote the growth of algae, and is detrimental to the health of fish and live aquarium plants. There must be a scheduled light/dark ratio for tank design, because too much or insufficient lighting creates stress in tank life.

This is the easiest aquatic plant care task. When a tank has a variety of well fed fish. Live aquarium plants take in the nitrogen and carbon from fish waste, and absorb trace elements which dissolve from fish food. Tap water offers some required elements to aquarium plants in addition to providing a relatively stable pH and gH balance. As long as your fish are well fed and plentiful, your live aquarium plants will grow well. Perform a weekly check of the acidity of the water, but a well designed tank needs little additional care.

If algae has begun to grow, either inside the tank, or on the plants, it is a sign that one of the three basic aquatic plant care steps needs attention. First, check the tank’s pH and gH levels. If this is fine, determine whether you have enough aquatic plants for the environment. One or two aquarium plants per cubic foot is a rough guide, but needs vary according to factors such as number of fish, and amount of lighting. Make sure that the aquarium plants are experiencing light/dark periods each day, yet not being stressed by exposure to direct light throughout the whole day. Live aquarium plants create a stable tank environment and an enjoyable and entertaining tank layout.

Read on more if you are ready to find out how easy is it to setup a planted tank.

David
AquaticMagic ~ Grow Happiness

Unlike most other living beings that survive on oxygen, aquatic plants essentially live on CO2. As they don’t get enough of it in tanks, we have to inject it there. Another essential item for the aquarium plant survival is light because that is the medium thru which they process their food. This process is called Photosynthesis. NO light means no photosynthesis and thus no food for your plants and their eventual death. So we have to maintain a balanced diet by adjusting these two elements.

As in the case of humans, a deficient diet reflects on their health, so is the case with aquatic plants. In both the cases we look for symptoms to know which nutrient is deficient. If you are already handling plants you might have observed that a low growth is generally caused by insufficient light or co2. In such plants it becomes a bit too difficult to realize other deficiencies as the symptoms are not so apparent. On the other hand in high growth planted tanks with lots of light and plenty of co2, aquatic plants grow so fast that there is a depletion of nutrients.

So far we have not been able to develop a scientific system to accurately measure the quantities of nutrients present in a given aquarium plant. So, we go by the Symptomatic Treatment. Before proceeding further, it will help you know that some of the nutrients are mobile while others are immobile. Mobile means that the plant can reclaim nutrients from old leaves and move them towards producing new leaves. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium magnesium and zinc come in this category. Deficiency of these nutrients appears on old leaves. But immobile nutrients cannot be moved from older leaves. Immobile nutrients comprise of boron, calcium, copper, iron, manganese and sulfur. Deficiency of these nutrients will appear on new leaves.

At times one warning signal may be indicative of deficiencies of more than one nutrient while at other times one insufficiency may disguise the other one. Since leaves are the most visible, you should look for signs of deficiencies around those on the aquatic plant. Next you should observe if the leaves being affected are new or the older ones.

The above observations coupled with a study of the following table may prove to be a good helping hand for you in your analysis of the aquarium plant-related deficiencies.

Any matching symptoms for your aquatic plants? It’s time to get some fertilizers for your plants!

David
AquaticMagic ~ Grow Happiness

We found this very useful video clip from 5min.com on how to setup a nano tank.

From this short video, you could learn the important steps on setting up a mini planted aquarium tank - enjoy!

David
AquaticMagic

We are finally ready to launch our German aquarium plant and accessories store (www.aquaticmagic.de). It is dedicated for our German-speaking customers. It has been a challenge for us to overcome the language barrier, but with the help of our professional native German translators, as well as the ready support from our newly-hired German-speaking customer service, we are now all ready to serve our German customers better.

Similar to our English store, our AquaticMagic German Aquarium Store offer Aquarium Pflanzen, C02 Zubehör, Seemandelbaumblätter / Catappa & Javamoos with the equally high standard of product and service.

These store policy remain unchanged over the new German store:
- 100% Live Arrival Guarantee
- 100% Customer Satisfactory Guarantee

Our commitment to this hobby remains unchanged: Get the maximum enjoyment and excitement out of your fishkeeping and aquascaping hobby!

Again, thanks for all your support! See you soon!

David

We have been receiving questions from our customers and readers on how to plant Fissidens Mini or Fissidens Splachnobryoides into aquarium tank, and we should have published this step by step guide for the benefit of everyone here.

Step 1: Upon receiving the Fissiden, take them out from the bag and float the Fissiden in a small pail of water. The Fissiden might comes with some brown color portion, which is actually the root structure of the plant. Do not remove them, as new leaves will be growing out from there (see close up picture below). These root structure should not be visible once they start growing in your tank.

Step 2: Spread the Fissiden evenly on a stainless steel or aluminium mesh.

Step 3: Use sewing thread to tie the Fissiden onto the mesh. Recommended spacing between sewing thread to be 3 to 4mm apart.

Step 4: Put the complete mesh into your aquarium. Recommended to have 8 to 10 hours of lighting period. Do ensure sufficient nutrients in your water column.

You have largely completed the setup. We have posted a number of photos below for further illustration on a healhty growth of Fissidens Mini:

- 2 weeks old Fissidens mesh. You will observe new leaves growing out of the brown roots (See red arrow)

- 4 weeks later (see below)

- 6 weeks old (See below)

- 3 to 4 months old fissiden carpet on the foreground of the aquarium:

David
AquaticMagic

As we have discussed earlier on on the beauty of moss in your aquarium tank, we shall shift our focus to larger tank here.

For larger tanks, moss decorations need not be the feature. With their minuscule size and ephemeral nature, these could be used to highlight greens of a large tank to create the impression of a giant forest or a mountain-scene by making use of rocks along with. Remember the trick with larger tanks is its sheer size and not moss. It’s the utter size of the tank and not the moss that awes viewers. Java Moss will solve the purpose for most of such tanks, as it gets conventional to the profile of the background plus the ease with which it can be profiled.

Now if can get some animals with the same cultural background as the moss, the two will go together exceedingly well. Think of slightly silver colored Cyprinids (rasbora, barbs, danios, minnows, sharks) racing around in the upper half portion of your tank. These will be thankful to you if you provided them with moss, for both love swift currents and come from nearly the same environments; yes I am referring to Asia. Without intermingling with the mosses they continue to race around thus imparting that feel of expansiveness to your aquarium.

Should you need something larger for the sake of aesthetics you could try one of the not so often noticeable shrimp, like Amanos or “wild-form” neocaridina denticulata. Amanos are nice because they are big, clear, and even if you have Java only you don’t have to worry about their insatiable nibbling.

General tips:
Explore the possibility of getting Mini Pellia (ricardia sp) that gives you a good option of trying a few combinations with moss. Its smaller size and not so bright green color makes mini pellia a nice combination worth attempting with the bigger taxiphyllum/vesicularia (example: Java/Singapore) species to make dark and vivid combinations.

Position the plants separate in a large enough area. Places where you grow the smaller, not so bright ricardias would appear  “darker,” whereas the places with the larger mosses impart brightness around them.

White sand contrasts really well with moss, and can award the tank a neat look. It would look all the more eye catching with moving water. Moss is quite a flexible medium and encourages you to keep experimenting.

David
AquaticMagic ~ Grow Happiness

Once your tank is assembled and the contents of your aquarium are going strong and healthy, your natural tendency is to make it attractive to catch anybody’s eyes. A proper combination of colors and moving objects would draw viewers’ attention. Of course you have to maintain a balance of all the items and colors lest it gives an uneven and patchy look. Aquatic moss is a very convenient and affordable item for being incorporated in your menu of items that you may choose to enhance the looks of your aquarium.

It is a very natural phenomenon for the eye to catch movements. But a small tank with a heterogeneously large variety of living beings will distract the eyes as they get drawn to contrasts.

On the other hand choosing a species of fish that interacts and goes around the moss will make an eye-catching view. Fish like Apistograma jells well with moss to give that feel of a real tropical forest.

Small sized fish too can be very prompting for the viewer, for it almost compels the viewer to get drawn to it to observe its smaller details like those small spots or thin colored and curved lines along its body. But to get that attention, it has to be colorful.

You can well imagine how effective or shall we say, defective a brown rams horn snail can be! Small size and bright color makes a perfect combo to attract viewers. Crystal Red Shrimp or other shrimp with stripes or an assortment of spots makes an ideal choice. As they relate very well with the moss, their proximity to it gives you an opportunity to show case your moss too, though primarily one gets drawn to them due to colorful stripes.

Let me remind you once again to desist from overcrowding your tank with a diversified variety. This is not only unhealthy for fish but also prompting for the viewer to mark the differences.

Shrimp also associate well with moss as most of the caridina species prefer cooler temperatures, and slight movement of water. Their continuous picking at moss is helpful as it prevents debris from remaining stuck on it, and also helps thwart algae. But be warned that the larger shrimp like Amanos, may tear apart the more delicate foliage of some of the newer varieties of moss species like Christmas Moss or Fissidens.

If you find this article interesting, read on for more…

David

AquaticMagic ~ Grow Happiness