If you like keeping fish, don’t leave your aquarium empty. Decorate your fish’s home with the following aquatic design for aquascape ideas.
Simply put, aquascaping is gardening in water. In this case, an aquarium. You can arrange water plants, rocks, or wood to create an aquarium that is interesting to look at. Of course this aquatic design ideas could be perfect for you.
In general, aquascaping is intended as a home for fish and aquatic plants. However, you can also create aquascape ideas with land plants too, you know.
7 Style of Aquascape Design Ideas
There are many factors to consider to create a balanced aquascape. Some of these are filtration, proper carbon dioxide levels for photosynthesis, substrate, fertilization, lighting, and moss control.
Dutch Style
In the world of aquascape, Dutch is one of the most commonly used aquascape ideas. The focus of the Dutch style is the growth and arrangement of aquatic plants. Therefore, you will not immediately see the results of this aquascape idea.
Even though 70 percent of the Dutch style is water plants, the aquascape created is not like a natural style that resembles certain natural conditions. With Dutch style, you can explore various types of colors, varieties, and plant densities.
What is commonly done in the Dutch style is to create terraces to create level and depth for the plants. Some plants commonly used in the Dutch style are Java moss, limnophila aquatic, and cryptocoryne.
Iwagumi Style Aquascape Idea
In contrast to the Dutch style, Iwagumi’s aquascape idea uses stones as the main character. In Japanese, Iwagumi means stone arrangement.
A characteristic of the Iwagumi aquascape style is the odd number of stones. An odd number is used to avoid the aquascape looking unnatural. Symmetrical stone arrangements are rarely used in the Iwagumi style because balance and symmetry indirectly indicate human intervention.
If you want to use this aquascape idea, you also have to pay attention to the type of stone used. There are four stones usually used in Iwagumi, namely Soeishi, Fukuishi, Oyaishi, and Suteishi.
The types of aquatic plants used in the Iwagumi style are very limited. Some that you can use include glossostigma gelatinoid, dwarf hair grass (Eleocharis acicularis), and hemianthus callitrichoides.
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Natural Style Aquascape Ideas
This aquascape idea is also one of the most popular. This style was first coined by Takashi Amano who emphasized the same principles as Japanese gardening techniques. The main goal of this style is to imitate as closely as possible natural landscapes such as mountains, hills, rainforests, etc.
This design uses rocks, plants, driftwood, and other objects centered in the middle of the aquarium. Meanwhile, for the outermost part, there are plants with a smaller size. Convex designs generally resemble an island or mountain.
Biotope Style
As the name suggests, the biotope aquascape idea attempts to replicate the water habitat in a particular area. This style is an original representation of the waters you want. Therefore, all-natural aspects must match the original, from fish, plants, rocks, and water, to temperature.
According to TheAquaAdvisor, Some biotope aquascape ideas that are popularly used are rivers in Papua New Guinea, swamps in North America, Amazon rivers, or tropical Australian reefs. There are no basic rules for executing the biotope aquascape style. You only need to replicate the original conditions of the waters you want.
Although challenging and interesting, to create a biotope-style aquascape you need in-depth knowledge of the waters you want to replicate.
Taiwanese-Style Aquascape Ideas
The Taiwanese aquascape idea combines Dutch and Iwagumi styles at once. This is intended to create an aquarium that has depth, levels, and a high terrace. What’s interesting about the Taiwanese aquascape style is the use of figures or houses to make the aquascape look more alive.
The main goal of this aquascape style is to emphasize simplicity and natural life as part of the design. Even though it was popular several years ago, the Taiwanese style is starting to be abandoned because this style lacks distinctive characteristics.
Walstad Style Aquascape Ideas
Walstad’s aquascape idea is similar to biotope and natural styles. However, the Walstad style does not emphasize the similarity of a particular area. It is more random because the goal of this style is to create a natural aquarium. Plants and other objects are simply placed without any design.
The Walstad style is relatively easy to make and maintain when compared to other styles. The costs are cheap because you leave the aquarium as is. The soil used is usually potting soil. You also don’t need to change the water too often if you choose this style because of the density of the plants.
Sinking City-Style Aquascape Idea
Apart from commonly used aquascape ideas, you can also create an aquascape with your ideas. One of them is the model of a sunken city or Atlantis. To create this model, you can use an existing city model or your dream city.
You can apply standard aquascape rules to create this model such as the golden ratio, rule of thirds composition, or size and color contrast. Apart from that, to make this aquascape idea, you need statues or building dioramas.
Those are 7 Aquatic design ideas for your aquascape at home. That way, you can bring magic into your home and get a new atmosphere.