IAPLC 2024: World Rank #22 - 'Closing' - A Journal on Contest Aquascaping

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

Hi all,

After some persuasion by @Iain Sutherland I've decided to write a journal on my IAPLC 2024 work: 'Closing' which achieved world rank #22 (Honour prize).

As many of you are already aware, the publication of works prior to the result announcement by the IAPLC is not permitted (results are published at the end of August each year). So this will be a slightly different take on a 'journal' with more of a start to finish photo log and 'hot topic' discussion for contest aquascaping. I hope you find it useful and an insight into my thought process throughout the creation.

For those that have Instagram, this may be a bit repetitive to my recent posts on there so apologies in advance! To break up the lengthy post into more digestible reading, I'll write bitesize posts on the following topic areas that roughly covers the process I went through in chronological order (with more generic topics that form the basis of some fundamentals for contest aquascaping).

1. PREPARATION
2. IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION
3. HARDSCAPE DESIGN
4. PLANTING, MAINTENANCE & ADJUSTMENTS
5. PHOTOGRAPHY
6. FINAL PHOTO

I hope this could lead to a platform for discussion and I'll be happy to answer any queries along the way! Any other topics you would be interested to know about, please let me know and I'll try my best to answer! Obviously with the help of the UKAPS Forum 😀

Cheers,
Tom

 

[FrozenShivers]

I think you were the top UK entry? Very impressive and gorgeous tank! Were you at the Josh Sim workshop at Horizon Aquatics? If so nice to put another name to another face.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

I think It's best uk ranking ever for iaplc?

Looking forward to this one Tom 👍🙏

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

I think you were the top UK entry? Very impressive and gorgeous tank! Were you at the Josh Sim workshop at Horizon Aquatics? If so nice to put another name to another face.

Thank you so much! 😊
Yes, I was there (the one asking all the questions at the front 🤣)!

I think It's best uk ranking ever for iaplc?

Looking forward to this one Tom 👍🙏

I believe so! I'll try and write up the first post on 'PREPARATION' over the next few days. Stayed tuned 👌

 

[Ash J]

Really looking forward to seeing how you put this together!

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

1. PREPARATION

'the action or process of preparing or being prepared for use or consideration'

I'm by no means an experienced contest aquascaper (this is my third time entering the IAPLC contest after first getting into aquascaping 9 years ago, and fishkeeping many years before that!), so please do not take this series as gospel! This is purely my take on the aspects I find most important for a successful contest layout.

After taking my first step into the realm of contest aquascaping and the IAPLC three years ago, I had one goal: achieve a top 100 ranking. I knew it would take time and I wouldn't achieve this at my first, second or even third try, but as long as I improved every step of the way I knew I was on the right path. Contest aquascaping is definitely a marathon not a sprint and there's a reason many top aquascapers are also some of the most experienced! For those interested, my IAPLC history so far is set out below:

• IAPLC 2022 - #449
• IAPLC 2023 - #279
• IAPLC 2024 - #22

In this episode, I will touch on the importance of 1(a) TIME MANAGEMENT, the 1(b) AQUASCAPING COMMUNITY and the 1(c) NECESSARY EQUIPMENT required to have a successful 'contest' tank. For me, these things together make up my PREPARATION for my work.

Please note, the material in this journal is contest heavy! Nevertheless they are still principles that you can apply to any tank, whether for your own personal enjoyment or for contests. Let's get into it!

For me, the biggest difference between a scape and one dedicated to a contest is the first three topics of this series: PREPARATION, IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION AND HARDSCAPE DESIGN. I see these three factors as the skeleton of any work and it amazes me the amount of time you can spend (or not spend!) on these three aspects if you don't get the timing right or if you don't have the right mindset when starting your work. Let's touch upon them in turn.

1(a) TIME MANAGEMENT

The IAPLC and other aquascaping contests are annual contests and have a deadline date for entries. For IAPLC, this usually runs from the start of April to the end of May.

Importantly, your final photo doesn't have to be taken during this period. In fact, the regulations of many contests (including the IAPLC) allows applicants to enter works with final photos taken within a year prior to the submission date. In effect, this means you can take your final photo on 1 April 2024 and enter it to the 2025 contest a year later. I definitely use this to my advantage. For me, the worst thing is the feeling of rushing my work! I will therefore usually start my IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION at least 9 months before the entry deadline.

For example, in 'Closing' I had reset my previous work in January 2023 so I decided to get ahead of the game and work on my next layout around February 2023. The final photo was taken in November of that year, with a total of 5 month's spent on PREPARATION, IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION AND HARDSCAPE DESIGN and 4 month's on PLANTING, MAINTENANCE & ADJUSTMENTS, PHOTOGRAPHY AND FINAL PHOTO. These are common timescales seen across the contest aquascaping community.

1(b) AQUASCAPING COMMUNITY

This is one of the most overlooked aspects in contest aquascaping and something that I have only recently realised the importance of. It is the number one factor to improve as an aquascaper, besides getting your hands dirty with hardscape designs!

It is a common misconception that contest aquascapers work alone in their own silos and don't share their work or interact with others along the way. Having spoken to many top aquascapers, including the likes of Josh Sim, Luca Gallaraga, Juan Puchades and Masashi Ono, it is clear that they all have a close-knit community of aquascapers to which they share their ideas and work with. Obviously this is on the proviso that no one copies their idea or publicises someone else's work before the result announcement. I guess it operates a bit like the MI5...secretive, with loyalty and trust, and no one stepping on someone else's toes...if you can put it that way!

For example, Japan (who are very much at the forefront of this approach to contest aquascaping) have dedicated aquascaping teams who meet on a regular basis to speak about aquascaping philosophy and their own work in order to elevate their skills and layouts. The same can be said in Spain and Brazil.

For me, this is one area where the UK is lacking and it would be great to see a similar community being set-up here in the future. Yes, we have the UKAPS forum with many great journals on philosophy etc., but we don't discuss recent contest layouts, critique contest works or go into the detail seen in other countries. I am confident that if we do, we will see more people taking part in contests, as well as a rise in many of the top ranks coming from the UK.

1(c) NECESSARY EQUIPMENT

This is more of a 'bread and butter' topic and I don't want to bore you with saying you require this or that piece of equipment. For there is a lot of information online which can provide recommendations on the equipment you need to grow aquatic plants well.

What I would say is, contest aquascaping is about being able to successfully grow aquatic plants above all else. For one, the IAPLC stands for the International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest! Whatever equipment you decide to use, I therefore strongly recommend that you master the use of light, Co2, filtration, fertilisation and water quality before embarking on taking part in contests. UKAPS is a great place to find this knowledge!

Having studied many top works over the years' and reviewing those with amazing hardscapes that in my view should be among the top ranks, the biggest thing that stands out between them is the quality of aquatic plant health. I guess that's why there has been controversy around the IAPLC, as many people only see the hardscape and think 'Wow' but forget about the importance of the rest of the judging criteria (something I will cover in the other topics mentioned above).

Yes, the theme, hardscape and overall complexion forms the skeleton of a work, but the plants are the paint pallete used to bring it all to life! 🎨🖌️🌱

For those who have kept reading and are still interested by this point, a full list of my equipment, plants and fish used in 'Closing' is set out below!

Tank Size: 90x50x45cm
Filtration: Oase Biomaster 600 & Eheim Experience 250, Seachem Purigen and Seachem Matrix
Lighting: ADA Solar RGB & ADA Lightscreen, turned on 6 hours per day
Material: Frodo/Elderly Stone
Substrate: ADA La Plata Sand, Aqua Soil-Amazonia Ver.2, Power Sand Advance M, Bacter 100, Clear Super, Tourmaline BC
CO2: Pressurised System, 5 bubbles per second via CO2 Art Inline Diffuser
Aeration: After the light is turned off using Lily Pipe
Additives: 2hr Aquarist APT Complete and APT Zero
Water change: 1/3 every other day
Water quality: Temperature: 23°C, pH: 6.4 TH: 30 mg/L using Reverse Osmosis water
Plants: Eleocharis Vivipara, Eleocharis Acicularis, Glossostigma Elatinoides, Riccia Fluitans, Riccardia Chamedryfolia
Fish: Hemigrammus Rodwayi

Part 2 on IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION coming soon...

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Very interesting insight into how the community work together, I to had always assumed the top scapers hide their scapes away.
It would be great to talk about how ukaps could help aid the discussion around recent contest scapes with the hope of getting more entries 👍 The UK turn out to contests is always disapointingly low given the number of excellent scapers around, maybe you could help us work out some ways to influence that.

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

Very interesting insight into how the community work together, I to had always assumed the top scapers hide their scapes away.
It would be great to talk about how ukaps could help aid the discussion around recent contest scapes with the hope of getting more entries 👍 The UK turn out to contests is always disapointingly low given the number of excellent scapers around, maybe you could help us work out some ways to influence that.

Thanks @Iain Sutherland! I've had a think about this and there are a few things I believe UKAPS could help with in order to facilitate more discussion. The first is hopefully reasonably straightforward to coordinate and set-up! The second, more of a longer term goal, but one to bring the UK on par with other strong aquascaping communities around the world.

1. Create a dedicated Forum page for Contest Aquascaping. Within this Forum there could be dedicated threads for each of the main global contests, including IAPLC, AGA, KIAC, CIPS etc. After the announcement and publication of the results each year, works could be shared by members from different applicants around the world and this would help to facilitate a platform for people to share their views on what works they liked and more importantly, the reasoning why. This could be as simple as liking the plant selection, to more detailed assessments including sketches of compositions showing why they worked well and what could be done to even improve the layouts. I feel this knowledge sharing would be second to none and UKAPS is the perfect place for this.

2. Although not directly related to UKAPS, the creation of aquascaping teams would be a longer term ambition. In Japan, these are centred around aquascaping shops (for example Aquarium Gardens or Horizon Aquatics). The Forum could help to facilitate regular meet-ups which focus on the philosophy of aquascaping and are led by members of those groups. Mini speed scaping competitions could also take place and new ideas and upcoming contest layout designs could be discussed at these meet-ups. This will get around the issue of sharing upcoming work online prior to the result announcement that would go against the rules and regulations of many international contests.

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

2. IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION

In simple terms, IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION is the process of idea creation before starting a work. The end goal resulting in the overall 'theme' of a layout. So how do we get there?

In short, there are many different ways and it is up to an individual to find out what works best for them (some examples I've seen are the use of a mood board, replicating an image from nature, sketching your own image of what you wish to create or taking inspiration from past works).

Despite which method you decide to use for your 'theme', IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION is the most important step in contest aquascaping in order to make your work stand out. It is the identity of a layout. Without an identity, a layout falls into the trap of becoming a 'jack of all trades' achieving neither this nor that. Even in contests, I see layouts fall into this trap where there is no clear 'theme' (a factor which differentiates the top ranks)!

It is also one of the steps which separates an aquarium for personal enjoyment and one made for a contest. With the IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION stage having limited or no time dedicated to it in many non-contest aquascapes. Don't get me wrong, you can still achieve a beautifully planted tank without a clear theme, but you won't necessarily reach the top rankings or make something memorable.

To better understand the importance of this, I like to put myself in the judges shoes. For one, they have 'x' number of works to assess and only a photo and a title to differentiate them. The 'theme' therefore must be easy to understand. Simple for aquarists and non-aquarists alike. For example, if you are creating a forest, there must be both trees and roots to capture the atmosphere.

Following the IAPLC 2021 result announcement, ADA published a video with two of the judges (Shogo Yamaguchi and Yusuke Homma). They were asked what they would like to see in works moving forward. Their response, "we want to see works that moves people's hearts...works that have a story...and express the creator's feelings". These comments embody what IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION is all about.

Moving to the judging for the IAPLC, there is a primary and secondary screening. The primary screening is undertaken by the Screening Committee with the sole purpose of selecting the top 100 works (this is now undertaken with guidance from the judges - a new addition for the 2024 IAPLC contest). The secondary screening then gives the judges an opportunity to reassess the top 100 works and rank them in accordance with the judging criteria. Importantly, there are three aspects of the judging criteria (circled in the image below) which directly relate back to the overall 'theme' of a work, making up a total 70/100 points available in each of the screening stages!



You might ask, how does the 'Presentation of natural atmosphere in layout work' or the 'Recreation of natural habitat for fish' link to IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION?

Well, let's think about this a bit differently. If you were to sift through the IAPLC you will be able to separate all of the works into two 'camps': Nature Aquarium and Diorama. This is nothing new or ground-breaking and I would argue the Nature Aquarium 'camp' would be easier to achieve the assessment criteria of the two I've specifically mentioned above.

It is common to perceive Diorama layouts as having insane depth, perspective and strong/wild hardscapes, with Nature Aquarium being more subtle, heavily planted and having a 'zen' feeling. I however feel this is not necessarily the case as many Nature Aquarium layouts have taken aspects of Diorama to murky the waters (excuse the pun!) between the two styles. There seems to be a shift in momentum and a 'grey area' formed. The sifting process is no longer a straightforward one.

However, if we look at this differently, and separate the works into 'Underwater' and 'Landscape' layouts, I find the separation process much clearer. For me, these two 'camps' more strongly resonate with the two criterion I highlighted above, and gets to the crux of what I believe the IAPLC meant when deciding to include these in the judging criteria. For example, it is possible to create both a 'Underwater' and 'Landscape' layout which creates a 'Presentation of natural atmosphere', but only 'Underwater' layouts can produce a 'Recreation of natural habitat for fish'.

Looking back to when I met Josh Sim at the Horizon Aquatics workshop earlier this year, I asked him what he focusses on when creating a successful contest layout and he replied "creating an underwater feeling". At the time, I was a bit surprised thinking surely all aquascapes are underwater! But then I realised many layouts take inspiration from terrestrial landscapes we see in nature. For one, landscapes are something we can easily relate to as we see them in our everyday lives (not many of us get to opportunity to visit the underwater habitats of the fish or plants that we commonly see in our tanks!).

Therefore, to create an 'Underwater' layout you need to be thinking about this from the IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION stage, as this too should be focussed on underwater scenery and not terrestrial ones. We however do not need to stray too far from the path to see how this is expertly done... for the biotope fanatics have been doing it far longer than us! I, for one, therefore like to refer to the layouts of the Biotope Aquarium Design Contest (BADC) as a source of inspiration.

I've included some great examples of 'Underwater' layouts that have been submitted to international biotope and aquascape contests in the attachments. For aquascaping, this includes Josh Sim's 'Samurai', Ismael Aguilar's 'Rolling River' and Masashi Ono's 'Habitat'.

Spotlight on 'Closing'

For my IDEOLOGY & CONCEPT EVOLUTION in 'Closing', my inspiration came from a specific combination of plants, not geographically related but connected through the works of Takashi Amano. The plants used were riccia, eleocharis and glossostigma (a classic combination seen in Takashi Amano's early works).

This is a different approach to what I've used in my past IAPLC layouts, where I started with a 'main character' (fish species) or 'geographical region' (i.e. Amazon). This approach is more in line with biotope inspiration mentioned above.

In 'Closing' this year, I knew my work would have to be a classical iwagumi to pay tribute to the use of these plants first pioneered through the works of Takashi Amano. My overall theme was 'nostalgia'. The source of inspiration: Takashi Amano's 'Complete Works' book.

Unlike my previous two works which arguably had more of an 'Underwater' theme, I knew my planting was important in order to add to create an underwater layout and natural habitat for fish. I therefore chose to also incorporate riccardia chamedryfolia on the rocks to replicate the passage of time and moss found on stones underwater. The surface ripples created in the final photo also enhanced this effect. The photo below from my visit to the Lake District was a good reference point.



This allowed me to step away from the 'dry' feeling of the hardscape and add a 'wet' feeling to the work. The hardscape stage is therefore not the only stage where you can create the underwater feeling. Plants, fish movement and surface agitation can also be used in combination to create this effect.

Part 3 on HARDSCAPE DESIGN coming soon...

 

[finniche]

Thank you for doing this journal, Tom! I am keenly following, reading and digesting info and insight. I admire your talent in scaping and appreciate the thoughts you are bringing out in this journal(and also earlier in the video by George Farmer).

I think you bang on with the underwater/landscape dicotomy. I think it better defines different approaches to contest aquascaping right now than diorama/NA on even Josh Sim´s wild/zen style division. Although this years IAPLC Grand Prize winner and few other works before are surfing on the surface, not on land on in water.😛

When I go through tens or even hundreds of contest scape pictures I cannot escape the feeling that somehow the scene is mostly repetitive with certain conventions being used over and over again. Luckily there always are also surprises and ingenious works. I do hope the evolution of the contest scene is taking us away from the "shadow" and "forest" years. Who knows.

I hope you are not offended if I present here a very brief history of contest aquascaping with two pictures. Oldest contest, AGA, had a category called artficial aquaria in its first year, 2000. Second place in the category was awarded to this:


You can read about Mr. Shimoda´s concept here AGA contest 2000

And to demonstrate how far removed from regular aquascaping or planted aquarium keeping the contest scaping sometimes is today here is ranking 7 of the IAPLC 2024

You can read about Mr. Tanaka´s concept and execution here AquaLibs

I myself have a sort of love/pain relationship to contest aquascaping. Very much interested, tried to practice, participate and better myself in this artform for five consecutive years. I have enjoyed following the scene, analysing masterful scapes, gathering info and how-to knowledge but failed to get better in the ranking sense and also felt frustration and disappointment more than anything during the processes. But I think I have found my own style and preferences with this versatile and wonderful hobby through this. So, a positive end result in that sense at least.

I am hoping and looking forward to active conversation around these great journal entries of Tom.

 

[CooKieS]

Edit: my opinion is useless, and so am I.

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

Thank you for doing this journal, Tom! I am keenly following, reading and digesting info and insight. I admire your talent in scaping and appreciate the thoughts you are bringing out in this journal(and also earlier in the video by George Farmer).

I think you bang on with the underwater/landscape dicotomy. I think it better defines different approaches to contest aquascaping right now than diorama/NA on even Josh Sim´s wild/zen style division. Although this years IAPLC Grand Prize winner and few other works before are surfing on the surface, not on land on in water.😛

When I go through tens or even hundreds of contest scape pictures I cannot escape the feeling that somehow the scene is mostly repetitive with certain conventions being used over and over again. Luckily there always are also surprises and ingenious works. I do hope the evolution of the contest scene is taking us away from the "shadow" and "forest" years. Who knows.

I hope you are not offended if I present here a very brief history of contest aquascaping with two pictures. Oldest contest, AGA, had a category called artficial aquaria in its first year, 2000. Second place in the category was awarded to this:
View attachment 223069

You can read about Mr. Shimoda´s concept here AGA contest 2000

And to demonstrate how far removed from regular aquascaping or planted aquarium keeping the contest scaping sometimes is today here is ranking 7 of the IAPLC 2024
View attachment 223070
You can read about Mr. Tanaka´s concept and execution here AquaLibs

I myself have a sort of love/pain relationship to contest aquascaping. Very much interested, tried to practice, participate and better myself in this artform for five consecutive years. I have enjoyed following the scene, analysing masterful scapes, gathering info and how-to knowledge but failed to get better in the ranking sense and also felt frustration and disappointment more than anything during the processes. But I think I have found my own style and preferences with this versatile and wonderful hobby through this. So, a positive end result in that sense at least.

I am hoping and looking forward to active conversation around these great journal entries of Tom.

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it 😊

I agree, Luca Gallaraga's Grand Prize work this year was in effect an 'Underwater' and 'Landscape' layout in one! Very impressive and deserving of the top ranking.

I too hope we will move away from layouts which repeat past compositions and see more aquascapers taking a risk. A great example this year is 'Leap' by Trinh Ha Le.


It's interesting to see the evolution of contest aquascaping over the years. Katsuki Tanaka's work, and members of his aquascaping team Creative Aquascape Japan (or CAJ), developed this style and submitted similar works to the contest over the last few years. For me, it more closely resembles the fundamentals of a Japanese garden and the organised planting arrangements. It's definitely a risky style but one which paid off this year! Although not sure whether this style will hold-up in future IAPLC contests...we shall see!

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

As much as I love Ada brand and philosophy, Iaplc is done for me. CIAC and KIAC are now my fav contests with great jury (of pro aquascapers not like iaplc) and scapes. (Not like iaplc top 100 these last 3 years which has been a mixed bag of everything without any logic, apart the fact that they need to promote Ada style and thus the brand).
They’re loosing 300-400 entries every year, it’s an indicator of the loss of interest for this contest.
I would like to add that some contest like Aga have size categories which really helps because not everyone can afford an 90-120-150cm contest scapes, even Ada should add this to their contest because they’re mainly selling nano tanks.

I appreciate your thoughts and opinion! I agree, CIAC and KIAC, as well as other global contests have some really impressive works this year!

As we all know, IAPLC went through a difficult time last year with some criticism around the transparency of the contest and judging criteria. However, it seems that ADA have listened as they adjusted the screening process for the top 100 this year! The judges were all invited to Niigata to oversee the selection of the top 100 works alongside the Screening Committee. I felt this resulted in better consistency, both in terms of layouts selected for the top 100, as well as the ranking in the top 100 itself. There has also been a shift to smaller tanks in recent years getting the higher rankings. Although a point to note is generally panoramic layouts have a better chance of success in any contest - so naturally the larger tanks will always do better (unless you have a shallow tank!).

In terms of the jury, I'm actually one who prefers having judges from different backgrounds (not all pro aquascapers) as otherwise you get into the realm of only judging by a creator's technical ability and/or the overall impression of the work. It's like having a cooking contest but only judging on the fine dining techniques or overall presentation! There'll be too many similar styles and works. For me, the most important thing is how an aquascape makes you feel (or how it 'tastes' going back to my cooking reference). Is it something that hasn't been tried before? Is it unique?

In my opinion, aquascaping is an art form and it should be appreciated by all walks of life...not just the pros...and so having people from biotope/nature/photography backgrounds enables a more fairer and more impartial judging process.

 

[finniche]

Interesting take on the judges’ background! I have not thought of it that way. I believe IAPLC judges usually have a long ”tenure” so in that respect they are knowledgeable if not all aquascapers themselves.

Another contest’s, RFLAC,results were just published and just like many other years a big number of the very high ranking works overlap in several contests. Be they of the groundbreaking kind or just exceptionally well executed works of established styles.

Out of curiosity is there now or has there been a public vote type of contest? The live scaping events have something like this sometimes, don’t they?

 

[CooKieS]

Edit: my opinion is useless, and so am I.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

More great insight Ryan.
I still can't quite understand when 50% of the total points are for 'recreation of a natural habitat' how so many of the top 50 end up there when you could argue a lot of them should get nil points in that regard?

I don't queation the quality of the layouts but I don't see how it fits with what IAPLC sets out as the main priority?
As you mention, surely those taking strong influence from biotopes should be in the top ranks..

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

Interesting take on the judges’ background! I have not thought of it that way. I believe IAPLC judges usually have a long ”tenure” so in that respect they are knowledgeable if not all aquascapers themselves.

Another contest’s, RFLAC,results were just published and just like many other years a big number of the very high ranking works overlap in several contests. Be they of the groundbreaking kind or just exceptionally well executed works of established styles.

Out of curiosity is there now or has there been a public vote type of contest? The live scaping events have something like this sometimes, don’t they?

I don't believe there is a contest where there is a public vote. As you say only at live scaping events. Agree - it would be good to see this incorporated.

This layout should have been top 7 at iaplc if not champion, but he decided to go with kiac instead, like many great scapers…it’s the perfect blend of aquascaping and natural underwater scenes, and it definitely have an high ‘wow factor’ since it’s something we haven’t seen before.

I do find the top 100 of this year’s Iaplc very boring , with some tanks that would normally ranks 300+ (nearly no plants, already seen layout, no underwater feeling and great habitat for fish…), just a nice photo shoot with an big tank (think 120+++).

Having used Frodo stones and having Adam in the jury definitely seems to have helped getting an good rank, and this sucks honestly…(I’m thinking of the green aqua guy works, which is actually similar to another work he presented a few years ago).

They may be 3-4 60cm tank in the top 100 but they’re all at least 40cm deep, so no Ada 60p, but this is an personal complaint as I only keep nano because bigger tanks are just so expensive to keep and redo every year for contest, ‘tant pis pour moi’.

This is just a few examples, I’m now even talking of the photoshop cheating thing in 2020 or 2021 I don’t remember , I think that was the starting point for the boycott.

Agree this is one of the best layouts this year. Definitely top 7 in the IAPLC.
Which IAPLC works this year did you find 'boring'? I personally thought there was more variety in layout types than seen in the other contests this year. But I guess its all subjective to what your preference is.

More great insight Ryan.
I still can't quite understand when 50% of the total points are for 'recreation of a natural habitat' how so many of the top 50 end up there when you could argue a lot of them should get nil points in that regard?

I don't queation the quality of the layouts but I don't see how it fits with what IAPLC sets out as the main priority?
As you mention, surely those taking strong influence from biotopes should be in the top ranks..

Yes, this also puzzles me a bit. Especially as I'm an NA guy so I pay particular attention to this aspect in layouts.

As you say, the quality of layouts and scoring seen in the top works in the 'Underwater' and 'Landscape' camps are pretty consistent, but 'Underwater' layouts better reflect this aspect of the judging criteria. So surely they should prevail? I guess this is the impact that diorama has had in contests. Despite the fact that I prefer the NA layout style, I do accept that generally diorama layouts have more of a 'Wow' factor when it comes to a viewer's immediate reaction. Perhaps this has an impact on the overall feeling of the work for the judges and it is difficult for them to get over this feeling and deduct points. I am not sure as I'm not a judge...just my initial thoughts.

However, what I do know through conversations with a few top aquascapers (Josh Sim, Masashi Ono and Insik Chung), they are very much focusing on the 'Underwater' layout style, and stepping away from the 'Landscape' based designs.

 

[PARAGUAY]

Personally l don't think you will ever get a set of judges in any field to suit everybody . But to see a planted aquarium contest for no CO2 would be interesting and give people with perhaps less time and maybe finance to enter

 

[Steven Chong]

Tom, this was a terrific post, a terrific iwagumi, and a terrific write up of your thoughts, and state of aquascaping overall. I'm sure it's in part because we share a teacher (Masashi Ono) and also in part because of your clear passion to learn the art of contest scaping, we share much in world view and view of the contests. This thread was fascinating enough that I had to login to my old UKAPs account. haha
(Even until today, I lament that Forums have fallen off in favor as the discussion platform of choice for hobbies-- forums > Discord 1000%)

I understand many of the sentiments in this thread-- Luca and Trinh Ha Le's layouts are my 2 favorites as well for instance. With both praise and critique for the IAPLC this year in the thread, I will have to throw my hat in with the side of "praise". I didn't know about the change in the steering committee procedure-- it's wonderful to hear ADA be responsive. I would say that it would be very hard to argue that IAPLC 2024 reaches the heights of the contests' history (still IAPLC 2016 imo, where peak/extremely high level of most of the styles we're discussing are ALL represented in the top7-- Diorama, NA, crazy gimmick, Brazilian Stone, Indonesian Forest); but the top 100 show me many layouts that demonstrate a playfulness or breathing room to welcome creativity that's very encouraging! It makes me want to try hard to enter next year.

I don't feel I have a good read on CIPS, but with KIAC I feel like compared to IAPLC, the top makes me feel the contest's passion, and drive to establish itself as a serious platform for the art. This is good-- I can applaud both KIAC striving to establish itself as a serious platform, and IAPLC opening creativity by in a way, NOT taking itself TOO seriously. These contests are at different life stages.

Personally, I feel that worrying TOO much about the rubric is a bit of a trap, as interpretation of it is very subjective on all parts-- on our part as fans/contestants, on the judge's part, and on contest staff's part. What feels "natural" to some, is not to others, and then there's the issue of language-- where ADA is a very Japanese company, and the meaning for these terms in Japanese has entirely different (and once more, subjective) interpretation. But then does the Japanese interpretation get translated perfectly for the foreign judges? (impossible) It's all interesting to think through, but best for folks not to worry too much about it all imo.

It's also probably best not to assume that any given style has a monopoly or even significant advantage on parts of the rubric, or even in things like "natural feeling". I would highly disagree that any style can lay claim to such.

On underwater feeling, the reality is that despite many top aquascapers pursuing heavily "underwater feeling" with literal "underwater environments", the top of the contest has not become a monotony or even highly populated by these Biotope-Inspired-NA layouts; or else scapes like the Masashi Ono one and Josh Sim one you posted earlier would have been Top 7 works, and not fallen-out of the top 100, or mid-100 respectively. While I also love (and make) those styles of scapes, I would not want them to be the only types of works rated highly at the IAPLC. Everything becomes a bit too easy-- aquascaping as an art is best if there's something challenging to contend with; no easy answer. The "answer" to what makes a great scape should be at the individual work level, not the style-type level.

I'm sure Tom has read me say this in a number of places, but it's important to remember that Amano himself was a radical. A scaper like Jun Itakura is an incredinble steward of Amano's form, but Itakura-san could never have been an Amano, and if Amano had been a conservative thinker like Itakura-san, we would all be either not doing this hobby or doing a much smaller Dutch-Style Contest loyalist hobby. Amano's own judging is part of what drove the Diorama scapes onto center stage alongside NA, with Amano himself picking Dioramas on multiple occassions as "Best in Show," including by TAU members Toshifumi Watanabe's mountain scape and Takayuki Fukada's 2015 GP, "Longing," the last contest judged by Amano (and funnily, both of them our fellow students of Masashi Ono). For me, the biggest impression of the man and his legacy will always be when I went to NA Party 2009 and hearing Amano-san say to us foreign guests at the Gallery, "What was this contest? What was this??? Every work this year was just a copy of something I've already done. I opened a world contest to see great new scapes inspired by all the world-- and what has the world shown me? nothing. NOTHING. Come on people- show me something new."

 

[Ady34]

This is a great journal Tom, an intriguing and informative insight into contest scaping. Thanks for sharing.