# Aquarium Styles



## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Which style aquarium inspired your first aquascape?... Why?

My choice: Natural style aquarium

Why: These are the ones most often seen in LFS in my area.


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## Piscesgirl (Feb 25, 2004)

I can't say anyone really inspired my first 'aquascape' -- other than the jungle look. I kind of tried to make a bit of shape with the Pelia, but my tanks really just evolve the way they evolve. It's always been more about the plants to me -- just growing them -- then a finely crafted aquascape. If I ever get there, fine, if not, fine too.


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## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

Ever since I was old enough to swim I loved being out in the middle of a weed patch in Lake Washington watching the fishes as they swam around. I've always had an eye to the naturalistic and it was a biotope that finally convinced me take the plunge into live plants. Well tended and colorful aquatic garden aquascapes have their appeal, no doubt about it. Even so, I always feel myself pulled toward aquascapes that are darker and have a decidely natural feel to them.

Regards,
Phil


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

When I first started (before the days of the internet), it was whatever the LFS occasionally got in (a half dead sword, etc.), so needless to say it was a mish-mash, and not very attractive.
I've just always been into live terrestrial plants of one kind or another, so it only seemed natural to try my hand in the aquarium, but without much information out there it was a bumpy road at first, and pretty discouraging. ](*,)


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## apisto (Jan 1, 2005)

Needless to say it is the dutch-style in the beginning 

Ive started out dutch (Amano wasn’t in the picture when I started keeping aquaria) but somehow I’ve ended up with e style in between Amano and Dutch. I very much like that, nowadays I find Dutch-style to crowded and Amano to minimal / artificial.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

How did I know that Takashi Amano style would be winning  

Anyone else!


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## scitz (Mar 16, 2004)

Define the difference between Natural Aquarium, and Nature Aquarium before I vote, plz


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## Fosty (Jun 6, 2004)

I am dissapointed that "Collectoritis Tank" wasn't in there. It would get my vote. Seriously though, both Dutch and Amano style. Let's just say I was inspired by both and achieved neither.


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Deffinately the biotope and the thought of collecting local plants to put in a tank. I also have collectoritus....


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## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

my thoughts about what I wanted went anti dutch and that was befor I saw anything other than those types of tanks. 

When I am in various places the shape of the hills and location of trees and woods is what makes that place unique to me. Even where my parents live in the coastal plains of South Carolina that is so flat that we joke that the greatest natural change in elevation is an anthill has ever varying plots of woods that make each field and general location unique. I looked at the dutch tanks and "saw" the same location based on the general shapes formed in the tank. One cornfield in Kansas is interesting, but there is so little variation from one to the next that one is enough. 

My goal has been and is to create a unique location in my tank. A combination of positive and negative space that tells me I am looking at one particular place in space.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

scitz said:


> Define the difference between Natural Aquarium, and Nature Aquarium before I vote, plz


Nature aquarium...Made famous by Takashi Amano, high light/high tech, carefully planned.

Natural aquarium... Lower tech, less structured


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## TWood (Dec 9, 2004)

I voted natural aquarium because it ends up being, well, natural. I despise both the Dutch and the Amano styles because they are so forced. A pox on both their houses!

TW


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## frozenoak (Jul 30, 2005)

*dutch*

When i was a kid some (cough cough) years ago I would go to the pediatrician's office (sometimes often) and as u know the wait was terribly long. well, my doc's office had all the usual toys (the wires with blocks u can move around) and reading material (Highlights and zoo books), but he also had a fish tank. it was a huge in wall aquarium. it was chock full of green plants and little colorful fish. from the time I entered that waiting room till the nurse came to haul me into the frigid torture chamber i wold stare at that tank. 
It was an awe inspiring sight. Inspired me to take up scuba diving (in Colorado no less). now that i am a little more established in life I have embarked on the journey to create a tank something like that tank. granted i know absolutely nothing about aquatic plants so i will be relying heavily on this forum and its People to help me through the journey ahead.


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

Why not try each style/method?
Then you can appreicate each style.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

I like Mr. Barr's answer best! Why not!
I once saw a picture of a biotope of a natural slow moving southern river. It had an old tire, car parts, license plates, beer bottles and cans, logs, an old fishing pole and other odds and ends. It had water lilies for plants and the fish were catfish and brim. It looked great in it's strange eerie way.


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## Piscesgirl (Feb 25, 2004)

> It had an old tire, car parts, license plates, beer bottles and cans, logs, an old fishing pole and other odds and ends. It had water lilies for plants and the fish were catfish and brim


 :shock: :shock: :shock:


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## amber2461 (Jun 15, 2004)

I am with PG here ...


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## EcleckticGirl (Jul 26, 2005)

I really cannot vote because they ALL inspire me. When I first started dreaming of having a planted tank years ago, it was the Dutch aquariums in Scheurmann's slim little manual published by Barron's that inspired me, but the Amano stuff is fascinating, but equally appealing are the natural biotope and the freeform natural aquarium styles too. 

Now that it's finally down to my putting it all together in my first tank, it will be just me and my artistic flair and bent with what I have been looking at lead me. I suppose in the end, it would have to be called natural.


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