Every fish keeper dreams of having that absolutely stunning show aquarium that displays their fish beautifully. Reality is, however, they’re not so easy to create! There are so many choices out there of rock, driftwood, tall plants, stubby plants, shells, bridges, and caves that we often end up with a higgledy-piggledy ill-matched display. It in no way resembles the aquarium of our dreams.
Do not fear, however, if you are stuck in aquarium design hell as we have many exciting aquascaping ideas for you. From natural to a coral reef, to biotope design, we have it all for you!
Nature Style Aquascaping
Nature aquascaping is quite possibly the most replicated and popular type of aquascaping in the fish keeping world today. It is seen in many, many aquariums and when done correctly is breathtakingly beautiful. Various landscapes can be replicated in this styling such as hills, mountains, and valleys.
First introduced into the aquascaping world by Takashi Amano, a landscape photographer, nature scaping upholds many of the same principles as Japanese gardening. The whole intention is to create as natural a landscape as is possible. These designs, however, are not simple to create and require a huge amount of skill, planning, and intricacy.
There are three different types of nature aquascaping which are as follows:
The concave design – This features a low focal point contrasting with tall plant life that gradually ends in the centre. This gives an overall U shape to the design and is mainly used for creating valleys, roads, and hills with the illusion of depth.
Driftwood is often used in a concave design of which there are many types and styles. If you’re looking for something interesting and a little different, we recommend natural driftwood for an entirely unique look and feel.
The Convex design – This form of nature aquascaping utilises a strong, bold centrepiece which gives height to the design. The outer edges usually consist of small plant life such as mosses that are low to the substrate. This design resembles island and mountain settings.
Mosses come in a variety of different types but one of our favourites would have to be the Weeping Moss (vesicularia ferriei). It grows quickly, is generally always healthy and is suitable for both shrimps and invertebrates.
The Triangle Design – This form of nature aquascaping is used to give the illusion of river shores and tropical reefs. It is made up of a high centrepiece that gradually slopes to substrate level. Driftwood, stone, and moss are often used as foundations for this style with dense plant life giving a sense of weight and mass.
Even though stone is generally a foundation for the triangle aquascape you still want a type that is pleasing to the eye and design. For those reasons, we recommend dragon stone, a stunning jet black and white rock that is weighty, durable and has endless design possibilities.
Iwagumi Style Aquascaping
The Iwagumi aquascaping style as suggested by its name is a Japanese design that roughly translates to ‘rock garden’. Iwagumi is one of the simplest styles to copy since it only involves the use of rock and plant.
In general, just one type of rock and one variety of plant is used to create the Iwagumi aquascape with the rock creating the main impact. A plant is usually used for carpeting rather than tall and showy. Iwagumi is overall a simplistic design created to compliment show fish.
To get the Iwagumi look right you will need to consider the type of rock you are using, the size of the pieces, and how you place them. Iwagumi needs to look natural so think about how rock formations look in nature and copy it as best you can. For example, natural rock patterns follow the same strata and are usually formed in groups of one large and several small.
When picking the actual rock look for detailed textures, interesting patterns, and colours that will compliment your fish. You do not, for example, want orange/brown rock if you plan on keeping orange toned fish. Black or grey rock would suit this fish colouration much better.
Some suggestions for rocks would be natural wood stone with its interesting grooves and textures, dragon stone, the interesting and natural green angel rock, and for something a little different slate. Slate may seem a strange choice but it can be stacked into interesting towers and structures.
You will also need to choose a variety of plant for your Iwagumi aquascape that will cover the entire base of your aquarium forming a carpet. Mosses and low height plants such as Glossoshgma Elantoides, Riccia Fluitans, and Hemianthus Callitrichoides are all ideal. Riccia Fluitans can be attached to the actual rock to give the appearance of growth on the rock. For good plant growth we recommend using a substrate that activates a strong and healthy plant growth such as Tetra Complete Substrate or Tropica Substrate.
Dutch Style Aquascaping
This style of aquascaping is the oldest and focuses on the arrangement and growth of aquatic plants in an aesthetically pleasing way. Unlike nature aquascaping, however, Dutch style does not aim to mimic natural settings.
To implement Dutch aquascaping successfully, you will need to have an end goal in mind that you can realise with careful cultivation and maintenance. This involves having a good knowledge of aquatic plants and being able to balance density, variety, and colour with simplicity. For Dutch style aquascaping over 70% of your aquarium will need to be planted.
The range of plants you use for this aquascape will need to include those that grow low and close to the substrate, bold aesthetically pleasing varieties, small earthy plants, large colourful species, and a carpeting type to provide seamless scaping.
We recommend plants such as Giant Ambulia, Cryptocoryne, Red Tiger Lotus, Rotala, and Java Moss.
Jungle Style Aquascaping
Jungle style aquascaping is pretty much as it sounds, a plethora of dense plant life with very little open space. It is messy, chaotic, wild and boundary-free! It uses very few hardscape elements just large-leaved, tall, and bushy plant life.
Contrary to how it sounds, however, this style of aquascaping is not simple to put together or maintain. It requires a good knowledge of plant maintenance and cultivation. You will also need to choose the variety of plants and where you place them carefully as they all have different growth requirements.
The best advice regarding plant choice would be to research which types of plant go well and thrive together. We would recommend varieties such as Java Fern, Madagascar Lace, Amazon Sword, Red Tiger Lotus, Aubias Barteri, and Green Tiger Lotus. For the best visual effect these should be planted in a dark substrate such as Seachem Florite Black Sand over a layer of plant substrate such as the ones recommended in Iwagumi aquascaping.
Water and plant maintenance are extremely important in jungle aquascaping in order to keep your plants healthy and growing. Fertilisers such as TNC Complete will help with this as will good specialist lighting.
Coral Reef Aquascaping
Coral reef aquascaping is used in marine/saltwater tanks and aims to replicate a natural coral reef system. It does this by using three simple ingredients, base rock, live rock, and coral. They are simple to form once you know what you want it to look like.
There are two main ideas used in coral reef aquascaping, the first being the arch design and the second the multiple mass. Both are extremely popular and some marine aquariums are aquascaped with both.
The arch design is created by taking a base or live rock and breaking it up in order to be able to build an arch shape. Pieces of rock are connected together either using zip ties or epoxy putty. Fish love the arch design to swim under, around and over.
The multiple mass design is where two or more stacks of rock are built and placed in the aquarium leaving crevices for the fish to swim through between them. You can create as many of these as you like within your aquarium as long as there is ample space for your fish to swim.
To create the most natural coral reef aquascape possible you will need either sand or crushed coral substrate to resemble the seabed. Multiple masses or arches should be built using ocean rock. Finally, and of huge importance, you will need to choose your corals that will adorn your arches and masses.
The coral arrangement is important as you want the reef aquascape to look as natural as possible. In order to achieve this try to pick corals that are either contrasting in colour or similar in shade and place them together. Live coral is the optimum choice as this will grow and inhabit your aquarium in the most natural way.
You can, however, opt for fake corals if you do not want to look after live or want to go for a brighter colour scheme than live allows. Some of our favourite fake corals include the coral sea plant, sea anemone, creative coral, and Livecity fake coral.
Hardscape Diorama Style Aquascaping
Hardscape diorama is best described as an evolution of the nature aquarium aquascaping style. This is because it takes natural environment replication to a whole new level. It is far more intense in appearance with greater importance placed on the scale. Nature aquascaping replicates nature, whilst hardscape diorama replicates specific natural scenes.
Hardscape diorama needs to be planned to the minutest detail with larger stones placed to the front and smaller to the back. This gives a sense of scale and depth. Substrate is also used to help with this by being piled up into a steep banking that creates the illusion of a pathway, road, etcetera down the middle.
DIY, as you can imagine, plays a huge part in hardscape diorama with tasks like breaking rocks, creating trees out of twigs, and covering driftwood in moss to make it look aged. There is a lot of planning and construction involved in hardscape diorama.
Large leafed plants and small leafed should also be used with the larger being placed at the front so they appear closer than the smaller leafed positioned towards the back. Overall planting should not be too heavy as you want to be able to see the effects of fading into the horizon.
Part of the appeal of hardscape diorama has to be that unlike Dutch, nature, and jungle you do not have to wait for plants to grow in to see the intended design of your aquarium. All plants placed in this style of aquascaping are positioned and sized as they are intended to be.
Biotope Style Aquascaping
Biotope aquascaping also aims to replicate natural habitats but not in an attractive way. Biotope is all about being realistic rather than aesthetically pleasing. For this type of aquascaping you need to have a good knowledge of the area and environment you are replicating.
Popular biotope aquascaping styles include blackwater and African lake with some fish keepers going as far as to source sand and wood for their designs from the country of origin. This helps their aquariums to be authentic but can work out quite expensive.
The artistic design really takes a back seat in biotope aquascaping and the aquariums styled in this design can look quite rough around the edges. They do, however, tend to be great environments for their inhabitants as water chemistry is also usually matched to the environment being reproduced.
Create Your Own Style Aquascaping
Of course, if you don’t want to be quite so rigid in your aquascape design you can always create your own. After all, all the above-mentioned aquascape designs are little more than instructed themes. Somebody created the ideas behind them and why can’t that person now be you?
Remember that aquascaping does not have to be all about what you place in your aquarium to make it look attractive, it can also be about the type of aquarium you choose. There are lots of options out there to choose from, not just the square and rectangular tanks. These include:
- Built into the wall aquariums
- Picture frame aquariums
- Bowl style aquariums
- Coffee table aquariums
- Over the bed aquariums
Don’t Forget About The Fish
There is no point aquascaping an absolutely stunning aquarium if you are going to put the wrong species of fish in it. For example, you would not put predator fish into a Dutch style aquascape as they, well to put it simply, just do not go together. That is not to mention that predator fish have a tendency to destroy beautifully planted aquariums!
Biotopes are fantastic if you plan on keeping just one species or several species from the same region. African or South American cichlids are good examples of this as well as Siamese Fighting fish, who need to be kept singularly.
On the other hand, you may be planning to keep large shoals of small fish that are not from the same waters. These tend to suit nature aquascaped or Dutch aquascaped aquariums that have been designed with contrasting colours in mind. You do not want your fish to get lost in your scaping because you have chosen colours that are too matched.
The truth is the sky really is the limit when it comes to aquascaping, and there are no hard and fast rules. Whatever your mind can dream up to decorate your home aquarium, can transpire. So why not let your imagination run riot and come up with your own ideas, or mix and match from ours? Nothing is right, nothing is wrong, and who knows you may just end up with an aquarium to die for!