Aquarium Design

An aquarium for fish needs to be landscaped. The fish are happier in their natural habitat. You can provide this environment by designing the aquarium so as to prepare the likes of the natural ecosystem. Most of us didn’t strive then to achieve natural looking fish tanks, but, yeah, black gravel with an off-centered, bubbling sunken pirate ship was artsy.

Those days are gone. A few sunken ships still linger, but the world of aquarium aquascaping has expanded to depths most of us couldn’t have envisioned thirty years ago. Today live plants are used prolifically by even casual fishkeepers, utilizing CO2 injectors and special formulas of sand in place of the old brightly colored gravels. Saltwater tanks feature live coral and anemones in abundance, and anyone keeping any kind of fish in a fishbowl these days is harshly criticized -and rightly so. Here are some types of aquarium design.
- Dutch Style Aquascapes. In general the Dutch style of aquascaping utilizes various plant heights, colors and textures in a densely planted fish tank to create a lush garden look in the fish tank. If your final product –given time to grow in- does not have that appearance, it is not a true Dutch style, although you may have utilized some of the Dutch style techniques in your design. That is, of course, perfectly okay. Even if you don’t seek the look of lush growth, the techniques of Dutch style aquascaping can still be useful in your own aquarium design.
- Creating Biotopes. Biotopes are less of a style and more of a quest. Biotope aquascaping is all about attempting to recreate as much as possible the exact environment the inhabitants of your tank would have lived in naturally. Biotope aquascapers strive to find the exact plant types or species if possible, the exact substrate, rocks, driftwood etc.
- Natural Aquascapes and Takashi Amano. Takashi Amano aquascapes can provide great inspiration. For the beginner or casual aquarist, however, that particular amount of detail and maintenance isn't always practical. Even if the beginner aspires to create his own Amano style showpiece, as many of us do, we're better off starting with the basics. Nonetheless, Amano has a good deal to teach us about the basics. One might say that Amano aquascape designs are so basic, that to replicate one is indeed very feasible. But that would be overstating their simplicity
- Tonina Tanks. Tonina tanks are not really intended to be a new style of aquascaping, but are actually collector tanks. What I mean by this is that a true Tonina tank would only include Tonina species of plants and others closely related. Tonina plants originate in South America, and are fine leafed, wispy types of plants which have gained a large following. Since Tonina plants require soft, acidic water in order to survive, people collecting these species of aquatic plants would generally keep them in their own tanks.

While planning your aquascape design, don’t forget to take into consideration the needs of your fish. Live plants –like fish- sometimes require special water needs, and something will end up dead if your fish and plants don’t enjoy similar water parameters. Fish like goldfish are known for eating many plants, however there are many thicker leaved plants they will not like, such as Java ferns and Anubias. Many fish enjoy having a good deal of open swimming space, or cleared gravel to forage around in. Others like a cave to hide in. Your fish will be less stressed and longer lived if you can accommodate their particular needs into your aquascape design. Research your fish, and know what they want. Typically their needs can be worked into any design. For a fish needing a cave you can set a small terra cotta pot on its side –behind some greenery where it is less visible if you like. Attach Java moss to the upper side of it with thread to make it blend in better, but be sure to keep the growth trimmed to maintain the opening.