George Farmer
Founder
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2007
- Messages
- 6,741
Dan and I are back, safe and sound from a wonderful experience at The Art of the Planted Aquarium Aquascaping Contest in Hannover, Germany.
We didn’t make the Top 10, but still consider we did well under the circumstances.
As you can see, the standard of aquascaping was incredible. A far higher standard than I predicted from looking at previous years’ entries.
The Grand Champion from IAPLC 2010 was competing, as well as Oliver Knott and some other very talented European ‘scapers. By the way, neither of these guys placed in the Top 10 either, so we're in good company!
Our biggest disadvantage I would say was not preparing any plants prior to the event. We relied on new Tropica plants, straight from the pot in their emerged form (except Vallis…)
The vast majority of high-ranking entries all had grown in their plants, indeed in some cases grown in their whole aquascape for months prior to the contest. Many also lived much closer than the 16+ hour each way journey we made via car and ferry for the 1,200 mile round trip!
These are no excuses, of course, and I take nothing away from the brilliance of the winning ‘scapers, but valuable lessons have been learned for future... Dan and I have already planned next year’s entry and will start growing it in soon!
I would encourage other UK aquascapers to consider entering next year.
To spend so much time amongst other enthusiasts is amazing fun and there’s so much to learn. The whole experience is brilliant, and it’s great to realize that this wonderful hobby of ours can bring so many people together in so many ways.
Unfortunately I didn’t get time to take too many photos but there are plenty over the web already.
Here’s is the Top 10, courtesy of my Danish friend, Jorgen –
No.1
No.2
No.3
No.4
No.5
No.6
No.7
No.8
No.9
No.10
And some shots of our aquascape, ‘Kingdom United’, photographed by me –
We didn’t make the Top 10, but still consider we did well under the circumstances.
As you can see, the standard of aquascaping was incredible. A far higher standard than I predicted from looking at previous years’ entries.
The Grand Champion from IAPLC 2010 was competing, as well as Oliver Knott and some other very talented European ‘scapers. By the way, neither of these guys placed in the Top 10 either, so we're in good company!
Our biggest disadvantage I would say was not preparing any plants prior to the event. We relied on new Tropica plants, straight from the pot in their emerged form (except Vallis…)
The vast majority of high-ranking entries all had grown in their plants, indeed in some cases grown in their whole aquascape for months prior to the contest. Many also lived much closer than the 16+ hour each way journey we made via car and ferry for the 1,200 mile round trip!
These are no excuses, of course, and I take nothing away from the brilliance of the winning ‘scapers, but valuable lessons have been learned for future... Dan and I have already planned next year’s entry and will start growing it in soon!
I would encourage other UK aquascapers to consider entering next year.
To spend so much time amongst other enthusiasts is amazing fun and there’s so much to learn. The whole experience is brilliant, and it’s great to realize that this wonderful hobby of ours can bring so many people together in so many ways.
Unfortunately I didn’t get time to take too many photos but there are plenty over the web already.
Here’s is the Top 10, courtesy of my Danish friend, Jorgen –
No.1
No.2
No.3
No.4
No.5
No.6
No.7
No.8
No.9
No.10
And some shots of our aquascape, ‘Kingdom United’, photographed by me –
