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

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3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

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10th

IAPLC 2010 Aqua Design Amano Nature Aquarium Party Video

Going to the official IAPLC party every October is the dream of many aquascapers, and Jeff Senske of ADG was fortunate enough to go to this year's events. Lucky for us, he's made a video of the highlights, which include the party and award ceremony, iwagumi contest, Takashi Amano's gigantic home aquascape, a visit to the ADA gallery, and some rock collecting. The iwagumi contest is a testament to these aquascapers' genius and Amano's home aquascape are just amazing in size and beauty. Pay close attention for the new plant, dwarf hydroctyle, in the gallery aquascapes. I can't wait to get that plant here! You won't want to miss this video.

Pavel Bautin's First Place 2010 IAPLC Aquascape

The 2010 IAPLC embargo end is just 2 days away and images from the aquascaping contest are already beginning to leak out. Several sites have already published some of the top aquascapes (although most of the pictures are horribly grainy and clearly poor scanning jobs), but Pavel Bautin has released a high quality image of his first place aquascape on his own website. The tank is quite different and the use of differing sizes of "tree trunks" for forced perspective works very well. Congratulations again to Pavel, and I'll post the top 10 aquascapes from the ADA contest as soon as I can find high quality images.

IAPLC 2010 World Rankings Announced

Where the River Begins - Pavel Bautin

Although there aren't any pictures of the winning aquascapes that I've found yet (the aquascape above is just one of the winner's other aquascapes), the world rankings for the International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest have been published. Congratulations to Pavel Bautin from Russia for being ranked number one! It's a bit of a shock to see someone from a country where aquascaping isn't traditionally as big as it is in other Asian countries place first, but the win, along with some great rankings for Polish and Ukranian aquascapers really shows how the hobby is taking off in Eastern Europe and Russia. Pavel Bautin does have a gallery of his aquascapes for his aquarium design company, and he is very talented. They look wild and full of life, and if his contest winning entry followed the same line, it's easy to see how he won.

The U.S. and U.K. rankings are few and far between, so get some ideas and get planning for next year's IAPLC!

International Aquatic Plant Layout Contest 2009 Video Emerges

This video of some of the top tanks in the IAPLC 2009 just popped up on the forums lately, and although the quality isn't the best, it shows a glimpse at some gorgeous tanks. A word of caution about this video: the transitions are fast, violent, and frequently nauseating. Someone had a little too much fun with their video editing software. I'll be posting some full resolution pictures of the top tanks shortly.

UPDATE: I've put together a slightly less harsh version, with ranks and in order. Watch it here.

ADA International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2009 Countdown

If you're lucky enough to have an aquascape you've been preparing to enter into the 2009 International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest (also known as the ADA aquascaping contest), you'd better hurry up and get your final pictures taken! The deadline to enter this year's contest is May 31. Remember you can apply online directly at the IAPLC website as well. Good luck to those who have entered, and even if you don't have a tank you are submitting, you can browse the previous year's top entries for some inspiration for next year:

-ADA International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2008 Top 10

-ADA International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2008: Entries 11-20

-ADA 2007 Aquascaping Contest: Top 10 Rankings

-ADA 2007 Aquascaping Contest: Top 27 Aquariums

-ADA 2006 Aquascaping Contest: Top 10 Rankings

IAPLC Nature Aquarium Photography Lesson

The International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest website has just posted a great lesson on how to take contest-quality photos of your aquarium. There are some great tips on how to use a basic point and shoot digital camera for photos, as well as more complex SLR cameras. Applications to the contest, which is the largest and most prestigious in the world, are now open, so get your camera tripod set up and get to work!

ADA International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2008: Entries 11-20

These just keep getting better and better. This year, I really feel like entries 2-20 are just as amazing if not more amazing than the grand prize winner. Here are entries 11-20 in the 2008 ADA Aquatic Plants Layout Contest. There are some really unique aquascapes in these, the most amazing (to me) is the 12th place entry. It looks and feels exactly like a tundra landscape in the summer, complete with fir trees, a flock of birds, and scrubby grasses. Click on the image for a larger version. Here's the post with entries 1-10 of the aquascaping contest.

11th

12th

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Glossostigma Themed Aquascaping Contest

Over at ADA Thailand, they've posted some pictures of the results of their themed aquascaping competition called Beautiful Glosso. All of the aquascapes contain Glossostigma elatinoides, which is an old favorite of Takashi Amano for a carpet-like ground cover. The tanks are also all smaller sized tanks. There are some very interesting nano aquascapes here, worth a look! You can also check out the winning aquascapes for 2007's nano aquascape competition.

I've personally found that Hemianthus callitrichoides (HC) is a slightly better ground cover for smaller tanks, since the leaves are smaller and it requires slightly less maintenance. One thing to note about both ground cover plants is that eventually, they will begin to grow on top of themselves, killing the older growth and uprooting the remaining plants. This causes "bubbles" in the carpet to form. I haven't yet found a way around this other than to rip up the carpet and start over. Luckily, this usually doesn't happen for at least 8-12 months, depending on the growth rate.

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.

Creating a Waterfall Illusion Underwater

I was curious as to how the tank above, which took World Ranking 7 in the ADA aquascaping contest this year, created the waterfall illusion. I had seen similar effects created by rising bubbles, but this seems to end before reaching the surface, meaning it is created using a different method (or there was a good deal of Photoshopping involved). However, an anonymous comment tipped me off to a website that explains exactly how it was created, and it is quite creative. To start off, the illusion is created with falling sand, not rising bubbles. However, bubbles still play an important role. See the diagram below:

This is a cross section of the "waterfall." A tube and airstone blows bubbles up through a space behind the wall, and as a result, pulls water and tiny grains of sand (blue dots) from a sloped reservoir (sloped so that gravity pulls the sand down and into the bubble stream) up the narrow space. Once the grains reach a second opening, they forced out the second opening with the water current and fall back down the front of the wall back into the reservoir. Here's a picture of what this looks like before any plants are added:

As you can see, very fine sand must be used for this to work. Additionally, where the sand falls is affected greatly by other currents in the tank, and it will inevitably fall outside of the reservoir. This means this effect is not the most practical for everyday use, as using it with a filter would probably blow the falling sand everywhere else in your tank. I'm sure much tweaking and adjusting is necessary to find the best type of sand suited for this application, and what size space behind the wall works best. How the sand is ejected from the top of the bubble column is also probably a problem area that requires a lot of attention and adjustment. It's hard to tell from the diagram, but the bubble column space most likely extends above the water line. This forces the water pulled up by the bubbles out the sand-ejection opening. Otherwise, the sand would continue to follow the current of bubbles and water up and out the top of the column (and you'd have a messy volcano effect instead of a waterfall!). The final effect, if done correctly, looks absolutely stunning in pictures.

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.