# My fellow Americans I implore you! (part 2)



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Here is another Dutch tank that I found tonight that I find very impressive.

This one is about 5 ft. long and is beautiuful in its simplicity. I don't like the tall plant right smack in the middle, but everything else creates a truly natural feel:










I especially like the dark areas. One doesn't need to fill their tank with rare and expensive plants to have it look gorgeous. The use of decorations and perspective goes a long way and that tank proves it.

--Nikolay


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Yes, that is beautiful. That goregous piece of wood does the trick. When I see tanks with alot of floating cover to create dark spaces it's very "Public Aquarium" like, since they try to duplicate what would occur in nature.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

The piece of wood on the far right really bothers me. Otherwise, I like it. I think it's interesting how folks and the 'plant market' are drawn towards the rarer plants, yet when you look at the 'winning' aquascapes you rarely find them in there.


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## Tankman (Feb 19, 2006)

Bert H, you are so right!


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## lljdma06 (Sep 11, 2005)

This tank is stunning, but I don't know, it has too much hardscape to be a Dutch scape to me. I also always pictured Dutch scapes having a lot more plants and more color contrasts. I will admit, the plants look too carefully place and maintained for a jungle or nature style tank. It is still a lovely tank, though.

llj


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## Amsterdam (Sep 17, 2006)

Lol!!!!
It aint Dutchstyle, it's just Dutch!!!

Veni Vidi Vissie :: Bekijk onderwerp - Amazone in 160 cm

And like you all know

It ain't much, if it isn't Dutch!!!!

Greetings from a fellow "Dutchman"


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

> It aint Dutchstyle, it's just Dutch!!!


I don't know if Amsterdam was trying to be funny or serious, but I was going to say it doesn't look like anything I would call a "Dutch aquascape" I doubt you would see it in a NBAT competition. If you like that kind of look, then you would probably like this:










This was done by Gary Duke, if I remember correctly is from America.


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## IceT (Sep 15, 2006)

This tank isn't a Dutch design tank. It was only scaped by a Dutch person.

On that website what was posted, search on W. v. Wezel. He has a beautifull Dutch tank.
Veni Vidi Vissie :: Bekijk onderwerp - Tadadada......klaar

Sorry for my bad English

IceT


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## Amsterdam (Sep 17, 2006)

If you guys (or girls) want to see some typical examples of " Dutch Style tanks"
Than go to NBAT: voor alle vivariumhoud(st)ers 
On the left you see a menu, select "keuringen" . Than you wil see the competitions of the last years. And if you select "gezelschapsaquaria" and go to the bottem of the page and click on the names on the left side, you will see the pictures of the winning tanks.

All of them are realy nice, myself however am more a minimalize Japanese style fan. Perhaps, becouse of the fact that this style is realy new to me.


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## Amsterdam (Sep 17, 2006)

Sorry i forget,
On the same page, insted of "gezelschapsaquaria" chooce "speciaalaquaria"
You will see some nice examples of Amazon biotopes like the picture in this thread. And other biotopes like "Malawi" and so.

Enjoy!


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

Off-topic a little possibly but for Dutch fans then "Planted Aquarium" by Christel Kasselmann makes a good read.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

> On that website what was posted, search on W. v. Wezel. He has a beautifull Dutch tank.
> Veni Vidi Vissie :: Bekijk onderwerp - Tadadada......klaar


WOW! Now that is a dutch aquarium! Gorgeous! That's what I am a big fan of.


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## jsenske (Mar 15, 2004)

Now THAT is a Dutch style aquascape!


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## mrbelvedere138 (Jan 18, 2006)

I don't like the first photo. Then again, I didn't like Oliver Knott's big one from the AGA competition. You know, the one with the huge stump and the angelfish. I guess I don't like that sort of wood arrangement.


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## IceT (Sep 15, 2006)

The tank you show there, the owner of it is number 2 of the NBAT "gezelschap aquaria". 

I'll search for more pics of his tank, he has made many scapes. And they are all beautifull.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Well, while many of the NBAT entries show tremendous skill in Dutch aquascaping, most of them are lacking in photography skills! It's unfortunet because I do not think the photos really do justice to the aquascapes,but NBAT is not a photo competition.

I ran the NBAT WEB pages thru the alta vista translater, but the translater has a lot of problems, much of it does not make sense. From what I gathered there are other catagories and one looks like biotopes, or amazon biotopes, and those are quite interesting as well with a interesting use of wood


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## Marco AUkes (Mar 9, 2005)

Well Robert, that is because the NBAT-contest has more than 1 category:

A1: Dutch style aquascaping
A2 + A3: Biotope Aquariums, where A2 is for Biotopes with Plants & Animals (for instance Discus) and A3 is for Biotopes with mainly fish (Malawi, Tanganyika and Middle-Amerika)
B1 + B2: Saltwater aquariums
C1 + C2: Paludarium (rainforrest style with poison dart frogs) & Terrarium
D1 + D2: Ponds

Each category has it's own champion, but the one who has the most points will be named Grand Champion.This said, you can imagine that we do not have a dutch-style aquarium as Grand Champion each year.


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## Marco AUkes (Mar 9, 2005)

By the way, if you'd like to see more nice aquariums from the VeniVidiVissie forum (where I am a moderator) just shout, I can make a thread here with the best aquariums on our forum.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

I would love that! BTW, I am sorry to have hijacked Niko's thread, which is why I started another one


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## treesmcdonald (Mar 14, 2006)

Amsterdam thanks for the link and the tips on how to navigate the site. I love the dutch style. The more plants the merrier lol. And I like the original picture posted also but it could use some more plants. The wood is great but I do agree with Bert about the pieces on the right.


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## Steven_Chong (Mar 17, 2005)

To say something in regards to the first scape posted-- Doing a layout like that is truly the decision to make a 1 for 1 representation. That is, a tank where wood represents itself, and ferns and moss are used to represent firms of moss.

There is no metaphor, and therefore 1 dimension of a tank's potential for creativity is not being played with. Not saying that's bad-- Amano also does layouts with moss and wood where you're supposed to get just that feeling-- moss and wood.

On the other hand, there are layouts where moss and wood are meant to take one into a giant forest. There are layouts where rocks arranged to make one feel like he's standing before a mountain. There are layouts that grab you by the hand and try to take you somewhere huge and far away, but a place that you can imagine standing in yourself-- because we're human and can imagine the mountains, forests, fields and streams we'd like to live by. 

This layout too depicts a fine river. However, 1 for 1 means that you don't get to make the layout look bigger-- which is what a lot of people like to try to do. At least those who follow the Japanese style aquaria closely.


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## nap83 (Feb 7, 2006)

IceT said:


> This tank isn't a Dutch design tank. It was only scaped by a Dutch person.
> 
> Sorry for my bad English
> 
> IceT


this is the funniest comment i've seen here, heehee...:heh:


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## IceT (Sep 15, 2006)

nap83 said:


> this is the funniest comment i've seen here, heehee...:heh:


Sorry I didn't know how to explain that correctly, but I hope that you understand what I say.


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