# Basic Aquascaping Techniques.



## Nerbaneth (Jun 30, 2009)

It seems hard to find information on aquascaping techniques on the internet these days, so I would like to post what I have learned. I would greatly appreciate information on any additional techniques that I missed or something I might have written wrong. I will add contributed information to this guide with credits to the author. While these techniques may be for planted aquaria, the same concepts can be applied toward any other kind of aquascape (reef, f.o.w.l.r., freshwater with castles and bubbling dinosaurs, etc...)

Goals

From what I can tell, the idea of 'goals' in planted aquariums came from Tom Barr(plant brain) and should be included and elaborated upon in any comprehensive aquascaping guide. The first thing you should ask yourself is, "How much time, effort and money can I put into this tank to enjoy it fully?".

High Tech:
A high tech tank will include large weekly water changes, weekly trimming, daily dosing, pressurized co2, store bought substrate and expensive lights. The advantages of a high tech system is that you will be able to grow almost any plant in your system and do just about any style of aquascape that you would like. Without proper, scheduled, maintenance, this system will fail, algae will grow and you will no longer enjoy your tank(unless you REALLY like black beard algae ).

Medium Tech:

A medium tech tank will include bi-weekly to monthly water changes, dosing of fertilizers once every couple days, DIY or pressurized CO2, store bought substrate and slightly less expensive lights. For a medium tech tank, I would highly suggest the use of coralife T5 NO aqualights. This tank will be more forgiving, but you will find that certain plants will not grow as well and fast. For most people I would suggest a medium tech tank because of the balence between slow algae growth and the many choices for plants.

Low Tech:

According to Diana Walstad(the creator of El Natural tanks to the best of my knowledge), planted tanks can be kept with very little maintenence and low inital cost. Water changes can be performed every 6 months, dosing of fertalizers and co2 is unnessesary, plain garden soil can be used as a substrate and regular aquarium lights or even sunlight can be used. While this setup is 'virtually' maintenence free, few plant species will survive, and great knowledge of what is actually keeping your system balenced is required.

Viewing Angles:

Before you do anything else, you need to figure out where your aquarium and stand is going. Try and keep in mind when you place it somewhere that it might be viewable from more than just the front. Your aquascape should reflect the place you put your tank. For instance: If you can see your tank from the front and the left side, you would want to make sure that no tall plants be placed on the left wall of the aquarium and you might consider making your focal point on the right side.

Tools

These are things that you should already have before starting your aquascape. The few obvious ones are: aquarium, filter, light, heater. On top of this you should have a good pair of stainless steel tweezers to plant everything and a net to catch your trimmings and dead leaves.
Other things you might find helpful: A substrate flattener(is there a more official name?) I have seen people use plastic spackleing knifes($1.99 at a hardware store) instead of the metal ones($20 to $40). A pair of stainless steel scissors. Some people prefer to cut stems with their fingers, but some sharp scissors will damage the plant much less than using your hands.

Golden Ratio

Whether you like it or not, math can and should help our aquascapes. Using the golden ratio will make your scape look better and it will be easier for your eyes to view the aquarium. In general the golden ratio says that you should place your focus point(s) at a 1/3 point in your aquarium. The actual number is slightly different, but 1/3 will look good, and is easy to remember. For an example, If your aquarium happends to be (90cm x 45cm x 45cm), you should divide all those numbers by three giving you (30cm x 15cm x 15cm) and you can place your focal point at the 30cm mark(from either the right or the left) on the side that is 90cm or at the 15cm mark on either of the sides that are 45cm or you can use a combination of all of them.

Tsunami wrote a much better description of the golden ratio on APC at
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquascaping/140-weekly-topic-golden-ratio.html

Substrate

The topic of which substrate to use is way too broad to include in this guide, but I will go over how the most common substrates will affect your aquascape.

ADA Aquasoil:

Its advantages are high nutrient levels, perfect substrate size,ability to replant, and the ability to turn into mud and form 'hills'. It's disadvantage is the short lifespan of it.

Flourite or Ecocomplete:

Low macro nutrient levels but high in micro(trace) nutrients. It has a good substrate size, but is sharp(especially flourite) and will cut some of the more fragile rooted plants(ie. glosso) root tabs are needed for these substrates.

Mineralized Soil or Potting Soil:

High in nutrients, but with a low lifespan like ADA AS(after two years it is usually depleated). Usually placed in layers (sand on top) therefore you should not replant frequently or at all if possible.

Takashi Amano believes that a large deviance of the substrate level in the front makes a layout look dark and uninviting. If you want hills in your scape, make sure that at the very front of the aquarium, the gravel is level and flat.

When making hills, mounds, slopes, or terraces, keep the golden ratio in mind and try to make the peak of the substrate at a golden ratio point. Almost all aquascapes will benefit from sloping their substrate from the front to the back. With the back taller than the front you will create depth in your scape. The most common things you can do with your substrate are: Sloping from one side to another, having several mounds, having a simple slope upwards from the front to the back, using terraces to raise the substrate level at certain places.

Three more advanced techniques I can think of are terraces, large mounds and sand beaches.
A terrace creates an abrupt change in substrate elevation that allows you to make plants look taller than it actually is.You can build a terrace simply by placing a rock or several rocks at the place in which you want a higher area of substrate and filling dirt into that area. Typically this rock will not be visable later in your aquascape, so you do not need to worry about the apearance of it. This technique is very useful for Dutch scaping.

Large mounds don't seem complicated, but once you have made them, you will notice that they will fall and slouch quickly. In order to prevent this, you can place plants with deep roots in the substrate, use small terrace like steps, or use a large visible rock to push the substrate where you want it. One of my favorite ways I have seen extreme slopes in an aquarium produced was by turning ADA aquasoil into thick mud/clay and then molding the hills into whatever shape the aquascaper desires. I would love to see more people use this.

Hardscape

Rocks can be a very useful tool in your hardscape. While some people do not incoorporate rocks into their aquarium(dutch), some people rely on them as their main focus and interest of their aquascape(iwagumi). If you choose to have rocks in your scape, you should follow several simple guidelines.

Make sure to have all of your rocks of the same type. Usually when someone uses multiple types of rocks in an aquarium, it distracts the eye from what it should be looking at. The best I have seem multiple rocks used in an aquarium was in the AGA contest this year. The aquascaper used white rocks in the back and dark rocks in the front to create a 'snowy mountains in the distance' look. Even though this was an impressive sight, the difference in rocks made the aquascape harder to look at than it should have been.

When picking out your rocks, go with rocks that are 'sharp and soft at the same time' as confusing as that sounds, it isn't too complicated. The overall shape of the rock shouldn't be sharp, but it should have sharp edges, shears, and or cracks in it. Using a rock of this type will give you rocks with character that do not distract from the rest of your layout. Get many different sizes of rocks and three times the amount of rock you actually need if you can.

When placing rocks, keep the golden ratio in mind. Rocks can touch, be, or point to a place that satisfies the golden ratio. When using rocks in my aquascapes, I try to let the rocks point to a gap in the rocks that is the main focal point. At the same time I try to have other rocks be in or touch a secondary focal point.

A few other notes about rocks: Make sure the color of the rock compliments your substrate. A blue rock will not look good on a black substrate. A black rock will look good on a white substrate. You should try to have an odd number of rocks in your aquarium to avoid symmetry and to compliment asymmetry. You can have a pile of two rocks next to one another, but try to make another two piles with three rocks or a large pile with 5 or 7 rocks. Try to include at least one rock that is 2/3 the height of your aquarium.

Wood can be a great addition to the nature aquarium. There are many ways to incorporate wood. In a Mound style aquarium, wood is almost essential to have shooting out from the center of the mound. Many of the rules that apply to rocks will also apply towards wood so I will not include them in this section.

When choosing wood you want to make sure that it is not too large for the aquarium you are going to put it in. The largest diameter of the wood should never exceed 1/3 the length of the aquarium. In most cases it should be much smaller than this. You want your wood to look delicate and gnarly at the same time. Choose wood with naturally rounded tips. You want you wood to look very soft.

Placing wood can be a daunting task especially if the wood is even slightly buoyant. Try to soak your wood very well before placing it in an aquarium. Consider symmetry and how to avoid it when placing wood. Even if you place two pieces parallel to one another, you will get undesirable results. Never cross two pieces of wood at a focal point, only have them suggest(point to/lean towards/lean away from) the location of the focal point.

Softscape

Now that you have you tank setup, substrate placed and have a hardscape, you will want to add plants! When buying plants, consider the leaf size, color, shape, height and texture of the plants and get an assortment of very different plants. The dutch style tends to go by the rule 'No more than 3 plants per 1 foot of aquarium' This is a rule that any planted tank can benefit from.

To create depth, larger leaved plants should be in the front and small leaved plants should be in the back. Try not to place similar leaf sized plants next to one another.

Color choice and placement can be acheived in several ways. You might choose to have an all green tank. In the all green tank there should be many different shades of green contrasting each other and texture should be greatly emphasized. Some people will add one bright red plant in the back of the tank near the focal point in a green tank. When using a mix of red and greens, do not place a red plant at the focal point because it will darken the whole aquascape and bring too much attention to the focal point.

Height is a rather simple concept. Taller plants go in the back, shorter plants in the front. Try to not have any plants in the front become taller than the ones in the back. Regular pruning is usually necessary to keep this from happening.

Texture is something that not many aquarists(including myself) seem to pay attention to. Mixing different textures (ie. placing a crypt next to bacopa) will make your aquascape more complex(in a good way) In the latest competitions I have noticed that many people have been using java ferns as a nice midground plant that adds a nice rough texture to the softer plants usually seen in a nature aquarium.

Fishscape

When choosing fish to put in your aquarium, first think of functionality for the aquarium and suitability for the water you are going to put them in. You should get a good mixture of fish that reside at different levels in the water.

Try to keep the diversity of fish in your tank to a minimum. When choosing your fish, think about what is already in your tank. If you have a lot of red, add blue fish. If you have a lot of green, add red/blue fish. Put differently shaped fish in your tank. Avoid putting 6 kinds of tetras or tetra-like fish in an aquarium.

If anyone would like to add information and/or pictures to this guide, it would be greatly appreciated!

I hope this helps,
-Danny


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## Nerbaneth (Jun 30, 2009)

I just read through that to proof read, and that is REALLY long.. well the information is there. Tomorrow I might go through and make some pictures to make the reading more bearable. 
-Danny


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## taz81 (Jul 13, 2009)

ooo this is awesomeness  Totally subscribing to keep reminding myself of all the rules i'm breaking and probobly shouldn't be hehe


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## Nerbaneth (Jun 30, 2009)

Lol don't think of it as rules... think of it as guidelines or tips. I know I am not using a lot of the stuff that is said here.. but I try to keep it all in the back of my mind when aquascaping. I'm glad you liked it.
-Danny


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## fishaquatics (Aug 2, 2009)

Hepled alot!!
-Thanks
Ian


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## ingg (Apr 8, 2007)

Correction:

the oldest mineralized soil tank I personally have viewed is decades old, and still going... short lived is umm, slightly inaccurate. 

You can also replant as you like. I've rescaped the same tank with the same mineralized soil base multiple times. It is not much different than any other substrate. Just be a little more careful when pulling rooted things like crypts.  The soil itself is extremely fine, and settles back down and sinks through almost all media when disturbed.


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