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 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.

Tanglerose, an ADG Aquascape

ADGVibe, the ADG YouTube channel, released this new video recently, and wow, I never realized a driftwood-only aquascape could be so stunning. With over 100 pieces of driftwood layered to create two dense thickets on either side of the tank, it really almost takes the place of plants. The choice of the Roseline Sharks really suits the layout as well, and watching them glide gracefully in and out of the driftwood makes this video simultaneously stunning and relaxing. Although driftwood like this isn't exactly cheap (this much could easily cost $500+) it's an interesting idea for the aquascaping community.

As a planted aquarium keeper, however, I'm just dying to add some plants in there. I think a carpet of hair grass beneath the driftwood would keep the minimalist look of the tank. What plants would you add if you could?