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.

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

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 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

If you need to give gifts to children, or a professional executive working in an office environment, you could consider a natural aquarium of fresh water. The very first criteria is that It got to be easy to maintain, and it has to be attractive and beautiful as this is a very good way to impress the children, or colleagues, and more important, develop their passion to nature and environment.

Here I will show you how to make an aquarium on your own at home, as well as in the clean office environment. Remember that this will be a simple and non-messy setup.

1. Begin with a fish tank; you can use a twenty gallon one for starters. Make sure the glass lid closes properly.

2. Place a layer of coarse gravel about two or three inches thick at the base of the tank. The gravel should be such that you can grow plants in it. Also keep in mind that the gravel color should be as natural as possible and avoid using the bright colored kinds as you are trying to create an environment close to the natural habitat that fish are so used to.

3. Next, put in some plants. Plants that take up a lot of nutrients from the water thwart the growth of algae so make sure you choose ones that grow pretty fast. There is a whole variety of aquarium plants available in the categories of rosette plants, grasses, ferns and stem plants. Pick ones that have a deep color, stems that are firm and well-developed roots. Take out the plants from the pots, split them from the bunch and untangle the roots. Choose different colors and qualities and make sure you plant the taller ones at the rear of the tank while the smaller ones find place at the fore. The roots of the plants should go below the gravel such that the crown of the aquarium plant is in line with the top surface of the gravel.

4. In the case of this small aquarium, you will not require a sturdy filter that will create plenty of turmoil and exchange of oxygen in the water. A tiny filter that can be submerged and can create a light current is just about sufficient.

5. The aquarium plants which go into your tank come from tropical places, so you will also require a submersible heater to maintain the water temperature at about 78 degrees.

6. Now fill the tank with water leaving about three inches at the top.

7. Select tiny fish that don’t destroy your aquatic plants. Some fish like to feast on them. Platies, guppies and tiny tetras like hatchet and Neons are a few kinds of tough fish. In order to keep the algae down to a minimal level in your tank, you could add some ghost shrimp and catfish that eat algae to your aquarium.

8. Put in the florescent light with the full spectrum. The aquatic plants need light to grow.

9. A natural aquarium does not require much maintenance. Trim plants that are overgrown with a large pair of scissors every now and then and change the water every week. This is really optional - and you could easily slower the plant growth (after it has reached your desired design), but lowering the amount of light shined onto the tank. You could easily do so by placing a non-transparent cover (Could be a plastic piece or a water proof thick card board) on the tank.

Why wait? Go ahead to build on to impress!

David
AquaticMagic - Grow Happiness

For your aquarium plants to grow healthy, soil or substrate is a vital consideration. Aquatic plants are found to record enhanced development using this simple method of creating a two layer soil.

1. Lower layer
For the lower layer, add sufficient water to some vermiculite so as to wet it but not so much that it begins to float. Press and pound the vermiculite to make sure there is no air trapped inside and also to make the layer as thin as can be. Now, put in some soil that you have dug up from the garden. Make sure the concoction is not gooey or your tank will have a cloudy appearance when you fill it with water; if not, add more vermiculite and soil. It should look like cake batter ready to go into the oven. This becomes the lower layer of the soil which provides the aquatic plants with a great medium through which their roots enter and absorb nutrients. Make this layer as thick as possible, but then, not so thick that it mars the beauty of your tank.

2. Upper Layer
For the upper layer, you can use about an inch or two of sand only to act as a shield and prevent the lower layer from making the water cloudy. The most highly recommended is the sandblasting grit number three which is normally available for US$10 per bag of 100 pounds. You may use any sand as long as it is not too fine and not from the sea. Number 3 sand is approximately 2mm in size. If you think the sand is dirty, you may wash it first. Then put it in on top of the first layer. This second layer of sand can be between one and two inches thick.

Lasty,
Fill water into the tank with the utmost care. Keep something like a flat tray down in the tank while filling in water to make sure that the soil doesn’t rise up and make the water muddy. The water will be extremely clear if you have been cautious. Else, if the soil does muddle up the water, it might take anywhere from two to five days for the soil to settle again. Whenever you dig up an aquatic plant, a little bit of soil might come up, but it poses no problem.

After you finish putting in your aquarium plants, you may add a bit of fertilizer to the lower layer.

Read here to find out how to make a moss wall for your aquarium tank, or
Read here to understand how to choose the combination of plants and fish in your newly setup tank

David

For a fantastic Planted Aquarium Tank, it is best to use resilient plants which do not require much maintenance like Java Moss, Java Fern, Water Sprite, Najas and Anubias. Such plants can make do with lower levels of light and fertilizer. You may use the low maintenance filter under the gravel or even a little power filter inside the tank will work just as well.

Before you begin to setup a new plant tank:
1. Make sure you scrub it clean without using soap.

2. Next, you should put an under gravel filter at the bottom.

3. Over it, place a layer about an inch thick of normal filter floss or static quilt batting

4. This should be covered by a layer of Aquarium gravel approximately two inches thick.

5. Next, position your plants according to your taste.
•A bit of Java moss in a couple of places with some gravel to keep it down.
•You can put a few Java ferns maybe to the left putting just enough gravel on the roots to keep
them from floating upwards.
•And you could have floating at the top a few Water Sprite plants.

A Plant Tank of ten gallon capacity will need just one florescent light that normally comes with a it. The plants will be supplied manure by the fish and besides the usual upkeep of changing water, vacuuming the gravel and feeding of the fish, there is not much else that you need to do.

For sure success, make sure you put in quite a few plants right at the beginning so that the algae doesn’t get a chance to grow. Just put them in and forget about it. Make sure that they get consistent light which is not necessarily continuous; light for some eight to twelve hours per day should suffice. You could use a timer to make your task easier.

Since the plants I mentioned get nutrients from the water, you don’t have to put in fertilizer as the fish produce it and the nutrientsare replenished each time you do a water change. Be aware that some shops might be selling you plants which are not really aquarium plants. Some like Corn Plant will live for at most two weeks in water. And Bog Plants may survive in water for longer but will not thrive.
After this point is done, the very next step will be some design work. We will cover that topic in the next post.

David