# ADA Nature Aquarium Gallery and Japanese Aquascaping



## Nigel95 (19 Feb 2020)

Hey everyone 

In October 2019 I have been to Japan and have done lots of aquascaping activities. I made a cinematic video with the best highlights of my trip. I hope you will enjoy the moments through my camera lens. Please subscribe if you like the video.


During the trip I have been to: 
- ADA Nature Aquarium Gallery
- Home of Mr. Takashi Amano
- Sumida Aquarium
- Aqua Forest Shinjuku aquascaping store in Tokyo

If you have any questions feel free to ask!


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## Shinobi (19 Feb 2020)

Brilliant!


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## Tim Harrison (19 Feb 2020)

Nice video, very inspirational. Thanks for sharing Nigel


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## Fisher2007 (19 Feb 2020)

Great job. Well done

And very jealous!  I'd love to go


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## Paul27 (19 Feb 2020)

Awesome


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## Ed Wiser (19 Feb 2020)

Nice would be a bucket list trip for sure.


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## Nigel95 (19 Feb 2020)

Thanks for your replies! Glad you like it 

Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk


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## Wookii (19 Feb 2020)

Superb camera and editing skills! Looks like you got to view some pretty inspirational aquariums!

Did you have a favourite?


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## Nigel95 (20 Feb 2020)

Wookii said:


> Superb camera and editing skills! Looks like you got to view some pretty inspirational aquariums!
> 
> Did you have a favourite?


Thanks for your compliment.

At the ADA gallery my favourite was the work of Yusuke Homma  https://www.instagram.com/p/B1I-OwiprXx/?igshid=agluio5t0gl5

A lot of tanks didn't make it in the edit due the heavy reflections on the glass with all the tanks and lights in the gallery.

My favourite tank of the trip has to be the tank at Takashi Amano home that is running for like 20 years now I believe. It was so unique to drink a cup of tea while sitting and watching his tank and garden. The size of this tank makes it somewhat impressive. 

But... Sumida Aquarium with all those big tanks in 1 room with relaxing music in the background was something special to.



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## Onoma1 (20 Feb 2020)

Superb video! Thank you for sharing it.


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## Kevin2016 (20 Feb 2020)

Unbelievable how they maintain the tanks. Don't they struggle with algea/flow like most of us do ?
I read somewhere on this forum that they have low light/no 10x rule which means les maintance etc ?


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## Nigel95 (20 Feb 2020)

Kevin2016 said:


> Unbelievable how they maintain the tanks. Don't they struggle with algea/flow like most of us do ?
> I read somewhere on this forum that they have low light/no 10x rule which means les maintance etc ?


As far as I know they don't have low light. Almost all tanks have ada rgb solar lighting. I believe (not sure 100%) ADA filters seem to have weak turnover on paper but its actually pretty strong if you compare it to other brands with the same specs. The tanks use the ada system which is designed to work together. It's sort of balanced. And please do not forget how much hard work they put into this to keep it in shape. They don't skip water changes or let's things get out of control and overcrowding. They have water quality similar to RO. Higher kh and maybe other variables can give issues aswell in some peoples tap water. But even this tanks have some algaes if you look closely. But I must admit the cleanliness is on point in Japan scaping wise. 

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## tiger15 (20 Feb 2020)

Nigel95 said:


> As far as I know they don't have low light. Almost all tanks have ada rgb solar lighting. I believe (not sure 100%) ADA filters seem to have weak turnover on paper but its actually pretty strong if you compare it to other brands with the same specs. The tanks use the ada system which is designed to work together. It's sort of balanced. And please do not forget how much hard work they put into this to keep it in shape. They don't skip water changes or let's things get out of control and overcrowding. They have water quality similar to RO. Higher kh and maybe other variables can give issues aswell in some peoples tap water. But even this tanks have some algaes if you look closely. But I must admit the cleanliness is on point in Japan scaping wise.
> 
> Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk


Tom Barr has visited ADA show room years ago and took a PAR meter with him to measure the light intensity.  What he found was all tanks have 30 to 50 PAR at the substrate level, so the intensity is surprisingly low.  ADA tanks are dominated by easy low light plants with  few, if any, stem plants. ADA use form, tranquility and  shade of green to bring out the beauty of aquascaping, not bright color as in Dutch style.

I Visited Sumida Aquarium and two Aquaforest shops in Tokyo last year and posted a thread on it.

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/my-visit-to-japan-aquariums.57800/


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## Nigel95 (20 Feb 2020)

tiger15 said:


> Tom Barr has visited ADA show room years ago and took a PAR meter with him to measure the light intensity.  What he found was all tanks have 30 to 50 PAR at the substrate level, so the intensity is surprisingly low.  ADA tanks are dominated by easy low light plants with  few, if any, stem plants. ADA use form, tranquility and  shade of green to bring out the beauty of aquascaping, not bright color as in Dutch style.
> 
> I Visited Sumida Aquarium and two Aquaforest shops in Tokyo last year and posted a thread on it.
> 
> https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/my-visit-to-japan-aquariums.57800/


It's outdated honestly for the ada gallery. The other locations do not have ada rgb solar indeed. When did he visit 2008? ADA RGB Solar is on the market since 2016 and all bigger tanks have them. Its definitely not low light at the substrate. The fact that some tanks don't have stems in it with this LED makes it even harder to keep it more algae free. 

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## tacy k (20 Feb 2020)

Beautiful! Thank you!


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## HamishT (20 Feb 2020)

Tanoshii!


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## tiger15 (20 Feb 2020)

Nigel95 said:


> It's outdated honestly for the ada gallery. The other locations do not have ada rgb solar indeed. When did he visit 2008? ADA RGB Solar is on the market since 2016 and all bigger tanks have them. Its definitely not low light at the substrate. The fact that some tanks don't have stems in it with this LED makes it even harder to keep it more algae free.
> 
> Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk


Yes, the info is more than a decade old before LED.  The light in use then was T5, which I heard was as intense as if not more so than LED.  Some aquascapers today still prefer T5 over LED in the believe it can grow better plants.  So without direct measurement to verify, we don’t know if the current lights are necessarily more intense than the older lights given that ADA preference of easy plants hasn’t changed..


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## Nigel95 (21 Feb 2020)

tiger15 said:


> Yes, the info is more than a decade old before LED.  The light in use then was T5, which I heard was as intense as if not more so than LED.  Some aquascapers today still prefer T5 over LED in the believe it can grow better plants.  So without direct measurement to verify, we don’t know if the current lights are necessarily more intense than the older lights given that ADA preference of easy plants hasn’t changed..



Yes nothing wrong with T5. I have an ATI myself for my 120cm tank. Also with T5 the reflectors have huge impact on the actual par output in the tank. So without describing them it's hard to say anything aswell.

Sorry but with the measurements of our friend Tiago (that doesn't mention par data at the substrate), I find it hard to believe that the tanks at the ada gallery are considered low light at the substrate. Even when using the concept of the inverse square law.

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads...ihiros-led-par-data-the-power-of-light.43178/

ADA hasn't changed the preference of easy plants I think yes. But the market at the moment demands more light output / proper spectrum to enchance red plants I think.


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## Shinobi (21 Feb 2020)

When I was there, I saw very healthy carpets of Glosso, HC and UG along with colorful stems of all sorts.

I think the term "easy plants" was used first by Tom Barr or Dennis Wong at some point and seem to have stuck with some people. After seeing the selection at the gallery myself I just wonder; what's an non-easy plant then?


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## tiger15 (21 Feb 2020)

Flowgrow plant profile site classified plants into 5 level of difficulty: very easy, easy, medium, difficult to very difficult.    

When I do a search on easy and very easy plants, they are low to medium light.  When I do a search on difficult plants, they are  medium to high light plants with one exception, Madagascar lace leaf that rated low light tolerant. When it comes to very difficult plants, they are all high light plants with no exception.

So easy and difficult plants is essentially synonymous to low and high light plants.


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## Siege (21 Feb 2020)

CO2?


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## Ed Wiser (21 Feb 2020)

Some people have trouble with even easy plants


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (21 Feb 2020)

Different growers do rate plants in different categories. For example Tropica have Bolbitis as medium, Glass Aqua have it as easy ( I think it’s "easy” ). 

I suspect it’s a combination of light and co2 demand ( in fact now I’ve said that it seems obvious, as surely the only other fact in nutrients which if you follow EI methodology at least should always be in excess ) that categorise plants, but if you go off tropicas easy medium hard there are plants in medium that are ok without co2 and some which need it. There is no clear line ( not sure I’d necessarily expect one ) is a sliding scale from super easy to super hard with lots of variation in between.


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## Shinobi (21 Feb 2020)

My point being that; the gallery have several examples of species that have high demands for both light and Co2. You look at something like UG it's even trickier, as it tend to dislike nutrients that a lot of other plants more commonly likes.
I don't know what Wong or Barr classifies as a "hard to grow" plant and by what measures they qualify.
Sure you'll see plenty of epiphytes and shade tolerant plants at the gallery, but the opposite is also very true in regards to higher demands as mentioned above.
 I conclude from own experience and what I've seen and heard from others; that the ADA lamps won't be the limiting factor to your plant selection and that they supposedly only use 'easy plants' is by my understanding simply not true


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## tiger15 (22 Feb 2020)

Matt @ ScapeEasy said:


> Different growers do rate plants in different categories. For example Tropica have Bolbitis as medium, Glass Aqua have it as easy ( I think it’s "easy” ).
> .



Bolbitis hasn’t been easy for me.  The first two times I tried, both died.  Only the third time I tried Bolbitis mini that it thrives. 



Shinobi said:


> I conclude from own experience and what I've seen and heard from others; that the ADA lamps won't be the limiting factor to your plant selection and that they supposedly only use 'easy plants' is by my understanding simply not true



Without PAR values reported, we can only speculate the light intensity based on outdated measurements by Barr and the type of plants used.  I don’t think ADA chose easy plants due to light limitation, but rather difficult color stems  don’t fit well into ADA nature style.


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## alto (22 Feb 2020)

tiger15 said:


> Madagascar lace leaf


Is this plant difficult though 
I’ve grown Tropica’s version over the years - the only difficulty I noted was limiting its aggressive takeover of the entire tank 
I’ve seen it grow well (in lfs display tanks) without CO2, with poor to moderate light, with minimal to moderate flow, without added fertilizers (except the Tropica Soil substrate) - though obviously some shops grow it in stable high tech tanks (where it’s decidedly more beastly )

If you read through Takashi Amano’s Nature Aquarium volumes, many tanks had 4-6 fluorescent tubes, moderate CO2 etc and a range of “difficult” to “easy” plants 
My idea of a “difficult” plant is more along Tropica’s concept of “advanced” plants 


Does Tom Barr have an active media page for his scapes?
(I’ve seen the odd photos/videos but when I think about Aquascaping, Tom Barr doesn’t really come into my mind - except for his wood collecting contributions!)


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## tiger15 (22 Feb 2020)

I don’t think there is much ambiguity of what are easy and difficult plants based on rating from different sources.   There may be some border line plants between easy and moderate or moderate and difficult plants depending on the rating source.  Easy plants generally mean low light, and difficult means high light with a few exceptions.

Tom Barr has showcased many of his setups in videos and photos, but he is not much an aquascaper as his specialty is color plants in Dutch style.  Dennis Wong is more an aquascaper as nature and diorama style require skill to pull together hardscape and plants in  harmony.  Barr contribution is mainly to prove that CO2 and EI eutrophication can grow lush plants with his own experimental data to back it up.  He went all the way to ADA gallery in Japan a decade ago with a PAR meter to take data.


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## tiger15 (22 Feb 2020)

alto said:


> Is this plant difficult though
> If you read through Takashi Amano’s Nature Aquarium volumes, many tanks had 4-6 fluorescent tubes, moderate CO2 etc and a range of “difficult” to “easy” plants
> My idea of a “difficult” plant is more along Tropica’s concept of “advanced” plants


I have visited Sumida Aquarium where Amano completed his last project and the largest nature aquarium in 2013.  I have not seen any difficult plants in the sense of intensity colored plants as in Dutch garden.  Similar to Japanese gardens that accentuate the shade of green, form and harmony while colorful flowering plants are used sparingly.  Amano pioneered the use of carpeting plants, and in the sense that growing dense carpeting plants is no easy task, he has some difficult plants.


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