ADA 2007 Aquascaping Contest: Top 10 Rankings

Finally got some time to throw these together with a little commentary; these are the top 10 aquascapes from the 2007 Aqua Design Amano Aquascaping Contest. The contest, held yearly and open to anyone, is the most significant award in the hobby and garners international recognition. The entries are judged by Takashi Amano himself and other renowned judges. There are some fairly original and interesting ideas in some of these and they are great inspiration!

World Ranking 1

This is a classic Nature Aquarium style tank and the contrast between the heavily planted left side and the open right side create a tranquil border scene complete with sandy foreground. The use of rock and driftwood help to add structure to the aquascape.

World Ranking 2

A lovely hillside scene with rocky outcroppings and schools of tiny colorful fish create an idyllic scene in this iwagumi inspired layout.

World Ranking 3

The carefully placed petrified wood in the foreground of this beautiful aquascape combined with the lush, overflowing green vegetation create the atmosphere of overgrown ruins deep in a jungle. The nearly terraced midground creates a beautiful "staircase" effect up to the dip in the plants where a school of fish hover like a flock of tropical birds. This is my personal favorite of the top 10.

World Ranking 4

Diagonal layers of ferns on driftwood create a stunning effect coupled with the contrast of the orange-tipped plant on the right side of the tank. The grassy, pastoral foreground complete with a school of fish completes the scene.

World Ranking 5

This aquascape looks like a lush mountain, with the two background groups of plants overlapping, creating a valley-like feeling. I love the contrast in colors and textures in this one.

World Ranking 6

An "island" aquascape, the driftwood adds a lot of interest and I especially like the hint of red peeking over the midground plants. The white sand foreground must be a pain to keep clean though!

World Ranking 7

This is a particularly interesting aquascape. I'm not quite sure how the designer created the illusion of a waterfall, but it could have been done with sand or air bubbles. Either way, the visual interest of this aquascape is amazing. It's such a beautiful tropical scene, with lush plants and mosses surrounding a clearing filled with grasses. The slope of the entire aquascape also adds such depth to the scene that it makes it seem much bigger than it actually is.

World Ranking 8

The most striking feature of this aquascape is the vertical rock formations. They are perfectly placed and dotted with all sorts of plants, creating an overgrown, natural look.

World Ranking 9

The black background of this aquascape helps to bring out the brilliant green colors of the plants, and the two red plants, on either side of the "valley" provide contrast.

World Ranking 10

Filipe Oliveira's entry, this is such a unique and wonderful aquascape. The moss "tree" and the pastoral setting beneath are fundamentally relaxing and pleasing to look at. It's also the only entry in the top 10 rankings from outside Asia.

Top 27 2007 ADA Contest Aquariums

Here they are finally! The top 27 aquariums from the 2007 ADA Aquascaping contest are listed along with comments from the judges over at Practical Fishkeeping's blog. The picture above is the winner of the contest, but some of the others are extremely interesting as well. Go have a look!

ADA Awards Ceremony and Party 2007

On September 16th, the Tokyo was home to the equivalent of the Oscars for the aquascaping community. The awards for the International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2007 winners were awarded and slides of the winning aquascapes were displayed. Although there aren't any clear pictures of the aquascapes yet, there are photos of the slide show and event over at Creative Aquascape Union. Check them out and I'll post the winning aquascapes when better photos pop up!

ADA Nature Aquarium Gallery in Japan

Here's a link I stumbled across and saved to a photo gallery of the ADA Nature Aquarium Gallery in Japan. This is where all of Amano's greatest works and works in progress are on display, as well as acting as a showroom for his ADA aquarium equipment.

There are some extremely beautiful aquariums, but just the sweeping pictures of all the aquariums in one room is pretty enough. There are even a few salt water aquariums as well. If you are ever in Japan, give this gallery a visit, I hear it is worth the trip! For more information on ADA and the gallery, head over to ADA Japan.

Yikes! Look how full that one is!

Aquascape Analysis #6: Gallery 22 Iwagumi

This week's Aquascape Analysis is Tank 22 from the ADA Europe galleries. It's different from previous aquariums in that it is an sanzon iwagumi style nature aquarium, which is a subset of the nature aquarium style. It contains only a few different species of plants and one species of fish. It also makes use of rock as a prominent hardscape in a distinctive non-equilateral triangular arrangement. You'll notice the rocks are placed so the largest rock is at the peak of the triangle and the two smaller rocks seem to lean or point towards the largest rock. This is the basis of sanzon iwagumi.



The profile of an iwagumi tank is almost always flat. This is due to the use of carpeting and grassy plants. If anything there are gentle, natural slopes to emulate nature, but no major profile-defining shapes. This helps to concentrate the viewer's attention on the rocks and convey a sense of openness and airyness.



As for the focal points, in an iwagumi tank, these are almost always the rocks that make up the hardscape. Usually the main focal point is the largest, most prominent rock. In this aquascape, this hold's true. The two other rocks form the secondary focal points. Notice how the two secondary focal points (yellow) flank the main focal point (red) and how the main focal point seems to follow the Golden Rule.



The flow in an iwagumi tank is almost always exclusively following the shapes of the hardscape, as these are almost always the focal points. Therefore the flow is very simple and relaxing.



As for the foreground (green), midground (blue), and background (yellow), these are harder to define and less concrete in an iwagumi. Often, an iwagumi will look like one large foreground, with no discernable background. However, in this iwagumi, the two smaller rocks seem to anchor the midground. The background consists mainly of the largest rock and the taller grass towards the back of the aquarium. Again, the ground in an iwagumi are much harder to define and often subjective.

Overall, iwagumi tanks are based on relaxing simplicity and visual appeal. The use of three stones is not random: the human mind prefers odd numbers visually. Using only a few plant species keeps it uncluttered, and using prominent rocks as hardscape provides clear focal points and guides for the viewer's gaze.

ADA Aquascaping Contest 2007 is Open

For any of you who feel like putting your aquascaping skills to the test and competing with the world's best, the 2007 Aqua Design Amano (ADA) International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest is now open for applications. More information and application forms can be found on the ADA website. New for this year, you can now apply online as well. There will be one Grand prize of JPY1,000,000 (a little over $8,000!), one Gold prize of JPY300,000 (about $2,500), two Silver prizes of JPY100,000 (about $800), three Bronze prizes of JPY50,000 (about $400), twenty Honor prizes of JPY10,000 (about $80), and 100 Winning works which will receive a certificate. Entries must be received before May 31, 2007. Good luck to anyone who enters, and tell us about it, I may even feature your tank!

Aquascape Analysis #3: Amano's "Dance of the Angels"

For this week's Aquascape Analysis, I've decided to analyze Takashi Amano's aquarium "Dance of the Angels" from his book Nature Aquarium World Book 3. This is a very large aquarium (2590L or 673 Gallons!) that is designed to be viewed from both sides. I wasn't able to find a picture of the other side of the aquarium, so just understand that this is a particularly wide aquarium and has an entire other aquascape on the other side. The advantage of having such as large aquarium is you can use larger plants like Cyperus helferi and let them grow to full size. This aquascape can be imitated in a smaller aquarium though, simply by substituting larger plants like the C. helferi with smaller plants, like Blyxa japonica or Echinodorus tenellus.



First, we can see that the profile is partly obscured by the top of the photograph (or aquarium) but it has overall a sloping profile, meaning it starts lower on one side of the aquarium and slopes upwards to the opposite side. The viewer's gaze will be automatically drawn down this slope, and it also prevents a "wall of plants" effect. There is a slight "V" effect in the profile as well that helps to draw the viewer's attention towards the back of the aquarium between the C. helferi and Java Fern plants.



The focal point is somewhat hard to distinguish because of the angel fish, which obviously draw the viewer's gaze first. However, in real life, the fish wouldn't stay stationary and although they form the focal point in this photograph, the overall focal point of the aquascape is the central C. helferi plant. There are also several secondary focal points around the aquarium as well, including the C. helferi plant on the right side, the bright spot in the background, the highlighted Glossostigma elatinoides in the foreground, and of course, the fish.



Amano has cleverly placed the secondary focal points to draw the viewer's gaze around the aquarium without using obvious driftwood or rocks. If we look at the flow of this aquascape, it is largely determined by the secondary focal points. These have been purposely placed (or patiently waited for in regard to the fish!) strategically around the aquarium.



Finally, if we look at the composition of the aquascape we can see that the foreground (red) is comprised of the G. elatinoides, while the midground (yellow) is made up of two islands of C. helferi and Java fern on the right side of the aquarium. The background (green) takes up almost the entire top left corner. This composition almost pushes the viewer to the right side of the aquarium and up the G. elatinoides carpeted pathway between the gently swaying C. helferi leaves and deeper into this beautiful aquascape.

Aquascape Analysis #1: ADA Tank 21

This will be the first of many aquascape analysis posts, where beginners and even intermediate aquascapers can learn some of the basics of aquascaping. Each post, I'll take an aquascaped aquarium that I feel is an outstanding example of the art form and perform a detailed analysis of just what makes it so special. This week I'll be analyzing "ADA Tank 21" from the ADA Thailand website galleries. Click on the pictures for larger versions.

This is one of my favorite ADA (Aqua Design Amano) aquascapes because of the colors and the flow. The contrast between the red and the green plants is outstanding, and the light gravel further heightens the contrast. First, let's look at the profile of the scape:


As you can see, this aquascape has a "V" profile, where the plants seem to dip down to some point, creating a valley. This creates interest for the viewer, because their eyes are drawn to this dip. It also creates interest for the viewer. The human mind is curious, and we wonder what's through that dip and behind the tall plants. The variation in height also eliminates the "wall of plants" effect that can occur if all background plants are the same height.


Next, the focal point of this aquascape is clearly the red plant in the middle (I can't quite tell what type of plant it is exactly). It instantly draws the focus and attention of the viewer, acting as a "home base" for their gaze. Note well that this focal point is not in the center of the aquarium, but off to one side, following the Golden Rule of Aquascaping. However, there are also two other points of interest (yellow). From the focal point, the viewer's gaze is drawn to the left and to the right to the two groups of bright green plants on either end of the aquarium. This draws the viewer's eyes in a natural flow around the aquarium and back to the middle.


This flow is further enhanced by the placement of the driftwood. All of the pieces guide the eyes in the direction intended, that is either to the left and the right (or back to the focal point). They essentially act as a road map for the viewer's gaze. Eyes that wander uncontrollably or have no guidance in an aquascape create an uneasy, stressful feeling for the viewer. The driftwood pieces also help to separate the foreground from the background and create a defined midground, but at the same time, soften the boundaries between the areas by transecting them.


Here we can see the three seperate areas of the aquascape. The foreground (in green) is low and consists of moss covered rocks. The midground (blue) consists of driftwood and Java Ferns that add contrast to the fluffy moss foreground. The background (yellow) is the "meat" of this aquascape, with vibrant stem plants making up the entire background. Each area contrasts with the other areas, defining them for the viewer without sudden boundaries. This is done through colors and leaf shape/general plant appearance. This helps to create depth in the aquascape.

The name of the game in this excellent aquascape is contrast and the aquascaper uses colors, plant types and leaf shapes, and flow to help define areas, create depth, and guide the viewer's gaze.

Amano's Ideal Light Levels Revealed

I've just stumbled upon this very interesting article on what the ideal level of light for an aquarium is according to the aquascapes of Takashi Amano. World-renowned aquascaper and founder of the Aqua Design Amano (ADA) contest and sponsoring company, Amano has published several books of his aquascapes and given light levels along with almost every aquascape. Using this information, John Fitch has not only discovered that Amano uses more light per gallon on smaller tanks, but has also developed a calculator to determine, using the data from Amano's tanks, roughly what light level Amano would be likely use on your aquarium. The calculator can be found in the article, which is called "Lighting as a Function of Tank Size in the Aquaria of Takashi Amano."

This is further evidence against the Watts per Gallon rule, which was always just a rough guide. In other words, 40 watts over a 10 gallon tank may seem like a lot of light (4WPG), but in fact, it should have closer to 65 watts. The reason for this is due to surface area, but exactly why I haven't quite gotten a handle on yet, so I'll do more research and report back when I have a better idea. All I know is that smaller tanks demand more light per volume and larger tanks demand less. The WPG rule holds for the most part in medium sized tanks (about 29 gallons to 55 gallons), but below and above that, it's better to go by something like this tool, or do your own calculations using surface area (-gulp-). Personally, I like the tool...