And the used condoms Tim.......,
I turn my back for half a day . . . 😂
Where is the divide between folks who will demonstrate the aptitude and attitude that determines the altitude that’s required to enter the IAPLC/EAPLC and those that can’t? Trick question; there are no prior requirements to enter.
But it does demand a broad set of skills which most people don’t currently have on their own for whatever reason. With a bias toward a community spirit, reckon you could upskill a lot of folk with a more friendly attitude and organised communication regarding the required skill sets. This argument sits aside from whether you value aquascaping as a ‘thing’ or not, by having a following ‘it’ is.
This for me is the essence of this forum - the supporting community spirit in creating an aquatic habitat whatever form that takes, and the ongoing aftercare required to look after it and develop it, and everything involved there in . Aquascaping is always a 'thing' for anyone setting up an aquarium. Everyone wants a nicely laid out tank that is pleasant to look at, even if they have no direct interest in competitions, or even want to apply the lofty label of 'aquascape' to their 'fish tank' - so the dissemination of many of the skills you refer to will always be useful and transferrable to anyone setting up a new aquarium no matter the form it might take.
Personally, I like Josh Sim’s attitude towards his first and second scape. According to Josh, that improvement happened being part of a small self selecting group with the sole purpose of improving through a healthy amount of competition. Get that certain folks are against the idea of competition in something like aquascaping. However, those that see how rivalry generally up’s your game, your motivation and time investment... it’s a largely positive experience. It drives results that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. It also introduces a deadline for the procrastinators amongst us which is not to be overlooked. There’s the ‘best’ aquascape you can produce and there’s the one that is ready on time. Don’t let the best become the enemy of the good, there’s always another chance next time around. This is a process.
The entirety of the ‘categories’ and ‘rules’ argument can be put to bed simply by adopting EAPLC rules if that is possible without legal repercussions, if you discount biotope’s. It at least sorts the annual comp side of this discussion with minimum effort unless someone fancies a rather long and arduous period of argumentation, an argument that will ultimately only end up in a disorganised jumble of people’s biases and preferences. The existing rules of the EAPLC allow for creativity whilst coercing a general sense of order that doesn’t stifle creativity... if it ain’t broke there’s nothing to fix.
Seems like a good place to start - I'm not familiar with the EAPLC scoring criteria, I'll have to look it up, but do they stick to it more rigidly than IAPLC do theirs?
The only side of the hobby that would require a category with its own unique judgements would be biotope, the judges would require detailed knowledge of what they represent for comparison.
I don't think we can afford to be so rigid in such a small community, otherwise I don't think you would end up with a single entry under a Biotope section. That's why I overemphasized the term 'Style' in my previous categories suggestion. For me, as I peruse the journals section of this forum, there are many tanks that follow the Nature Aquarium 'style' - and by that I mean the heavily planted, neatly curated layouts we usually associate with Amano, commonly high tech with CO2 injection etc. Whilst we refer to them as a Nature Aquarium, I think we all accept they are not trying to recreate a true aquatic habit but more a naturalistic underwater garden.
However there are other aquarium journals that go for a much more wild style, something you might more reasonably expect to see on a river or lake snorkelling session. There are some great scapes that, for me, fall within this section, particularly on the low tech side and blackwater set-ups etc. They might not be heavily planted enough to score highly in a 'Nature Aquarium' section, but are equally great tanks that might do well in a Biotope 'Style' section, without being rigid Biotopes in the true definition. Perhaps we need a different word to 'Biotope', perhaps 'Wild style'? Ultimately we don't want to be excluding such tanks because they have certain plants or fish from differing geographical locations, nor do we want to be excluding them because they don't line up exactly with what we usually see in a Nature Aquarium style layout.
Time for a reality check based on the current status of the poll:
35 yes
1 no
3 maybe
Playing devils advocate... You ain’t got a competition so far folks. It’s a house party at best.
. . . and they're just the people that think a competition is a good idea, not necessarily the number of people who might consider submitting an entry! I'd wager if you asked those 35 people if they planned to enter, the resulting total would be less than half.
Also waiting to hear back on how this whole endeavour would benefit UKAPS funding?
Sponsorship and advertising revenue seems the obvious option here. The likes of Oase and Twinstar seem more than happy to sponsor YouTubers, surely they'd be tripping over themselves to have their name associated with a national UK Aquascaping competition. If you can get coverage in the national fishkeeping press for it also, it would likely draw more users here as a side bonus; a larger user base leads to more sponsors and donations etc.
Obviously all that requires a huge effort and input from the volunteers who run this forum, so I don't want to presume that it would be an easy ask of those folks.
On the plus side, the human catapult idea can now be disbanded 😂
Dammit - that would have been
@George Farmer's highest view YouTube addition to date, particularly if you could have landed him directly into an EA1200! 😂
