Impact of Japanese Earthquake on Aquarium Suppliers

ADA Gallery in Niigata

As you've probably heard, a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11th, 2011. Since then, a group of brave workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant have been battling explosions and radiation leaks in an attempt to bring the crippled plant under control.

Although it may seem a world away from most of us, these events may have a very real impact on our aquascaping hobby. Many companies that make aquarium supplies are based in Japan, with Aqua Design Amano and Hikari probably being the most well known. ADA is headquartered in Niigata (about 100 miles from the worst devastation in Sendai) while most of Hikari's facilities are in southern Japan.

Everyone at ADA headquarters, which is closer to the affected area than Hikari, is alright. The gallery there sustained little damage if any, with all tanks surviving the earthquake. Apparently, ADA stands and tanks are designed to withstand earthquakes. However, as you can see in the map above, the ADA gallery and headquarters (marked A) isn't all that far from the Fukushima nuclear plant that's been leaking radiation for the last two weeks. Since ADA's substrate product, Aqua Soil, is collected nearby, there has been some concern over radiation levels in the product. ADA was quick to release a statement stating that radiation levels are being monitored:

Our national and local government is monitoring the radiation level every hour, and we do not see any abnormal value of radiation reported from the area of collection. In addition to that, we are not collecting these soils every day, and we now have been processing the soils collected before the earthquake. The raw materials of our AQUA SOIL series are collected from a layer of earth in the ground, and we do not see any concern of having soils contaminated with radiation. Therefore, there is no effect of radiation in all AQUA SOIL SERIES and it remains as ideal substrate for aquarium use.

Even if radiation isn't an issue, the general destruction of highways and ports and other infrastructure, along with the power outages could delay some shipments of ADA products to the US. If you were planning on making any necessary ADA purchases in the near future, and the products are in stock, I'd go ahead and make them now just in case. As a show of support for ADA and the Japanese people, ADG Shop is offering a special deal on Aqua Soil with 10% of proceeds going to the Japanese Red Cross. Keep in mind though that this is a pre-order and that the Aqua Soil is not in stock right now, so if you are in a rush to set up a tank, you may want to contact the folks at ADG to see when they expect their next shipment. The ADA Gallery in Niigata has also opened up their gallery seven days a week until further notice to help provide a relaxing escape from the destruction.

The International Aquatic Plant Layout Contest (IAPLC) run by ADA has not been impacted or delayed though, so continue working on your submissions!

Meanwhile, Hikari has most facilities in southern Japan, but will probably also be impacted by damaged infrastructure and power shortages. There hasn't been a lot of mention about the quake on the Hikari USA website, but their Facebook and Twitter feeds have posted a video of a koi farm during the earthquake and offered their condolences to those impacted. Again, if you depend on Hikari products (say a special fish food for example) you may want to get it now just in case there are any interruptions in availability.



One thing you probably don't need to do and shouldn't do is go on a panicked buying spree. ADA and Hikari products are going to continue to be available, there just might be some short delays. I'll update this post if I hear anything else back on product availability or delays from Japan.

Aqua Design Amano Prices Increased

Bad news and good news for Aquarium Design Amano (ADA) fans. First, the bad: as of November 1st, 2010, the prices of Aqua Design Amano products in the US have increased due to increases in raw material prices and exchange rates. Yes, some of the best aquarium equipment available here in the US to aquascapers has become even more dear. No word yet on exactly how much of a price increase it was.

Now the good news: The Aquarium Design Group (ADG) store is delaying the price increases until January 2011. That means that even though the prices on ADA items has increased, you'll continue to pay the old prices at ADG until January, and ADG's next container shipment of ADA goodies is set to arrive December 7th. This means most out of stock items will be back in stock in time for the holidays.

Just in case you aren't exactly sure what ADA offers, they'll also be receiving copies of the new "book of ADA" catalog, which will be available for free to all ADA customers. All you need to do is pay postage! Here's a quick description from the ADA website:

Not only Nature Aquarium Goods but also Do!aqua products and Wabi-kusa are introduced. It presents the full lineups of ADA products. This informative book shows ADA products, beautiful aquascapes, layout making, technical know-how of maintaining living organism and equipments, distributors and supporters' list, and more. It is recommended for all aquatic plants hobbyists from advanced level to beginners!

This sounds like an amazing resource, even if you aren't sure you want any ADA products! I'll be sure to try to get my hands on one, and don't forget to place your orders at ADG before January 1st to get the lower prices.

ADA International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2010: Top 10 Tanks

Well, these are a little late, but it doesn't look like any higher quality images are going to surface any time soon, so these will have to make do. These are the top 10 aquascapes in this year's ADA International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest. The "miniature forest" theme has really taken off in popularity with two different iterations in the top 10 this year. I personally like them a lot with position 5 being my personal favorite. What's yours?

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

Racomitrium canescens: Now Available from Aqua Forest Aquariums

Aqua Forest Aquarium, an aquarium store in San Francisco and North American distributor of Aqua Design Amano equipment, has a new type of moss available for order online. It's listed as Rhacomtitrium canescens, but a quick Google search only finds results for Racomitrium canescens, so I'm assuming this is just an alternative spelling or a typo, since the two are so similar. The Google images though do appear quite different to the one above from the AFA website, so I'm still not quite sure what this moss really looks like or how it behaves in the aquarium. The moss is apparently (according to AFA) a very eager photosynthesizer and produces lots of oxygen bubbles under the right conditions. For aquatic moss aficionados and collectors, any new aquatic mosses available are exciting and I'm seriously debating a larger moss aquascape to make some room. Anyone tried growing this moss before or have any additional pictures of it in an aquarium?

IAPLC 2010 Aquascape #134 Released

"Tamo daleko" by Slobodan Lazarevic of Serbia, #134 2010 IAPLC

And so it begins. After IAPLC rankings are published, there's always a slow trickle of entries released ahead of the ADA Party in October. Technically, contestants aren't supposed to publish their entries until the party is over as part of the contest terms, but "Octopus" has released his entry into the IAPLC 2010 contest early. Another of the up-and-coming Eastern European aquascapers, "тамо далеко," which Google roughly translates as "Far There," is a captivating aquascape. The aquascape ranked 134th out of over 1000 entries and uses rock very effectively to create a narrow pass up the center of the tank. One of the best parts of this aquascape in my opinion is the lighting, looking amazingly like the soft light of early morning. The only thing I don't like about this particular photo is the reflection off the surface of the water, since it takes away from the whole mountain-scape feeling. You can find a full list of flora and fauna in a post on APC.

Updated IAPLC 2009 Top 27 Aquascapes Video with Ranks

Spent the afternoon playing around with Picasa's built in movie maker and I put together this video of the top 27 aquascapes from this year's International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest. The aquascape in position 20 is missing, but all the rest are there, in high resolution glory! I hope the soundtrack and pacing is a little better than the other IAPLC 2009 video I found. You can watch a HD version, in a bigger format on YouTube. Enjoy!

Another Droolworthy ADA Aquascaping Gallery Video

Another amazing ADA gallery visit video has surfaced, and let me tell you, it's another 4 minutes of awesomeness. Like the last video, it's shots of all the aquariums set up in the ADA gallery in Niigata, Japan, but this one is a bit higher quality. You get to see plenty of aquascaped planted aquariums, a few glimpses of a salt water aquarium, and some really neat nano aquariums. I especially love the emergent ferns in the tank at 3:25 (not to mention the spotless sand foreground and gorgeous Roseline Sharks). All I can say is it must take a lot of work to keep each one of these aquariums that clean and immaculate! Be sure to check out the thread for some still photos of the visit as well.

ADA International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2008: Top 10 Tanks

Here they are, the top 10 aquascapes in this year's ADA Aquatic Plants Layout Contest. Click on the images for a larger version. I must say, there are some absolutely stunning aquascapes in this bunch. Several are quite unique too, including position 1 and a really really long aquascape in position 7. I'll be posting some more tanks later. Enjoy!

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th8th9th10th

2008 ADA Aquascaping Contest Winner

Pictures of this year's ADA Aquascaping Contest 1st place aquascape have been posted on CAU along with an interview of the winning aquascaper, Mr. Cheng Siu Wai. The aquascape is called "Danxia" and is quite unique. Check out the interview as well. Although the English translation is a little rough, it's still worth the read!

Expect the rest of the top 10 aquascapes to surface soon.

A Visit to the ADA Nature Aquarium Gallery

ADA Launches New Aqua Journal Online Website

Aqua Design Amano has recently launched a brand new English website called Aqua Journal Online. The website contains tons of useful information, including articles on Aqua Soil (which seems to be the focus for this first "issue" of the website), setting up a new Nature Aquarium, and some galleries of Takashi Amano's tanks. One of the best features, available under Suikei Data, is the ability to look at Amano's tanks and then be able to see the tank data, including size, lighting, filtration, plants, and more. Some of the sections aren't finished yet, but it looks very promising and there's already enough reading to keep you busy for a few hours, so go check it out!

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.