# IAPLC 2020 top 127



## Iain Sutherland (29 Aug 2020)

Some great scapes and a few questionable decisions...



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## Iain Sutherland (29 Aug 2020)

Link is to filipe oliveira fb page for top 127 if link doesnt work. 

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## Melll (29 Aug 2020)

Not that I know about top notch or any notch aquascaping but I agree with you.  My favourite was number 21.


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## MirandaB (30 Aug 2020)

I know little about how they judge these but I feel a little underwhelmed by a lot of those that scored higher up,I think probably number 8 was my favourite.


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## hypnogogia (30 Aug 2020)

Is there a link to see them?


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## Sarpijk (30 Aug 2020)

hypnogogia said:


> Is there a link to see them?


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## GHNelson (30 Aug 2020)

#7 My favourite


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## Tim Harrison (30 Aug 2020)

Some amazing scapes #7 is phenomenal, but my favourite by far is #65 at 27:03 mins.


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## GHNelson (31 Aug 2020)

Yes, #65... is a stunner!


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## Tim Harrison (31 Aug 2020)

Jeff Miotke has created some awesome scapes...


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## castle (31 Aug 2020)

for me, my favs are: #70, 53, 30, 6, 3.  I do quite like the winners tank too.


Does number 2 use mirrors in the substrate? I hate that.


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## hypnogogia (31 Aug 2020)

castle said:


> Does number 2 use mirrors in the substrate? I hate that.


I saw a few that I thought had mirrors.  Looks awful doesn’t it?


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## Tim Harrison (31 Aug 2020)

There are a few that could have easily been grown dry and just flooded for the competition too.


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## Nuno Gomes (5 Sep 2020)

hypnogogia said:


> I saw a few that I thought had mirrors.  Looks awful doesn’t it?



A friend told me that trick is done by using epoxy resin, not mirrors. I guess it does look interesting on the photo (I'm talking about Steven Chong's tank) but it would look pretty stupid live. Then again most of those diorama tanks would look much worse live than they do on the photos.

As far as the picks for top 127, many of them are pretty underwhelming and there are many tanks that didn't make the cut that I feel are much better and would deserve a much higher spot in the ranking.

The one thing that irks me a bit is that this is an ADA contest but the top ranking tanks do not reflect the ADA philosophy at all.


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## Luketendo (5 Sep 2020)

Nuno Gomes said:


> The one thing that irks me a bit is that this is an ADA contest but the top ranking tanks do not reflect the ADA philosophy at all.



I think that is because the judges are not ADA. It would be interesting to have a contest where it did reflect ADA because I join reading the content on their site etc.


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## Kezzab (5 Sep 2020)

7 was the wow scape for me.


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## Ady34 (5 Sep 2020)

castle said:


> for me, my favs are: #70, 53, 30, 6, 3.  I do quite like the winners tank too.
> 
> 
> Does number 2 use mirrors in the substrate? I hate that.





hypnogogia said:


> I saw a few that I thought had mirrors.  Looks awful doesn’t it?





Nuno Gomes said:


> A friend told me that trick is done by using epoxy resin, not mirrors. I guess it does look interesting on the photo (I'm talking about Steven Chong's tank) but it would look pretty stupid live. Then again most of those diorama tanks would look much worse live than they do on the photos.
> 
> As far as the picks for top 127, many of them are pretty underwhelming and there are many tanks that didn't make the cut that I feel are much better and would deserve a much higher spot in the ranking.
> 
> The one thing that irks me a bit is that this is an ADA contest but the top ranking tanks do not reflect the ADA philosophy at all.


It is indeed mirrors, I dislike it also tbh.
I wondered myself and this came straight from Steven Chong......


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## alto (6 Sep 2020)

Perhaps rather than rushing to judgement, listen to Steve Chong discuss the thoughts behind his aquascapes 

(note that the use of mirrors in winning tanks is not new )


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## alto (6 Sep 2020)

FWIW the IAPLC has always been a photography contest (almost?) as much as a planted aquarium contest ... which make sense in a way as Takashi Amano himself was a renowned photographer 

Any contests which judge applications by submitted photos cannot be otherwise 

And it’s interesting that IAPLC seems to generate far more interest and hype than the live aquascaping contests


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## PARAGUAY (6 Sep 2020)

MO. Any talk of changing the goalposts is just a bit well not in the spirit of Amano and l think he may look down not pleased at the suggestion. We cant just change to ADA style?? only or ban diorama just because it's not like anything underwater ? Personally l like Fukadas this year more than previously higher ranks. That's the point everybody can have their favourites even if the judges dont share it and l think ADA did a good job in their balance of judges. Even Amano didn't always wouldn't always have selected the final winner but of course again in the true spirit of the contest was one of a panel of judges who came together in agreement and he set the contest up 20 years ago for planted tanks layouts for all entrants to do their own creations


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## Onoma1 (6 Sep 2020)

I agree fully with the post from  @PARAGUAY, however, I couldn't see how some of the winning tanks fitted with the judging criteria (http://en.iaplc.com/about/grading.htm). In particular:

Recreation of natural habitat for fish (Maximum 50 points)
・Evaluation of layout work if corresponding type, size, physiology and ecology of fish

② Long-term maintenance of layout work (Maximum 10 points)
・Chance of maintaining the aquascape for a long period of time
・Screening of whether or not the expression shown in the layout photo is produced temporarily only for photography


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## Nuno Gomes (6 Sep 2020)

Onoma1 said:


> I agree fully with the post from  @PARAGUAY, however, I couldn't see how some of the winning tanks fitted with the judging criteria (http://en.iaplc.com/about/grading.htm). In particular:
> 
> Recreation of natural habitat for fish (Maximum 50 points)
> ・Evaluation of layout work if corresponding type, size, physiology and ecology of fish
> ...



I highly doubt most of the criteria they claim to use are actually used for all layouts. Then again, considering they dont publicly show the exact scores for each category and will not discuss grading, we'll never know.
It does not bother me that much, but no matter how interesting it looks, I would compare using mirrors in an aquarium to using a fake sunken ship or cave.


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