Why?

[PARAGUAY]

Thats not how Isee it @_Maq_ it's true that many base their aquascaping on landscapes ,diorama etc and personally l love them but it's worth noting the term" Nature Aquarium" can be found in the wild ,take Amanos hair grass ,rock formations we're it's hisimagination of what the underwater world looks like in the rainy season. Then I remember the Dennerle plant hunters discovering an area of whitewater with organized looking stem plants which looked just like a Dutch style gigantic aquascape Also those River style, fallen wood aquariums they mimic nature as aquascapes

 

[Wookii]

There's also another story to this.
The term "aquascaping" and "nature aquarium" entered vocabulary with the creations of Takashi Amano who elevated tank modelling to a popular-art level. It's based on some disgusting lies. First of all, his creations have nothing to do with "nature". If not for other reasons, then for using CO2. "CO2 injection" and "natural" are incompatible terms.
Amano made his creations not to foster understanding of natural processes but to sell. Similarly, his (posthumous) ADA company sells construction toys to make profit. There's no hint of interest in nature in it. Now, people see it on the Internet, and like the creations. So they follow herd instincts and buy fancy pieces to create the very same. It's almost impossible to see a tank without Dragon Stone and/or Spider Wood.
This fashion is guiding this hobby to consumerist style. People are less interested in the living creatures and care only what they look like. You can see it even here, at UKAPS. This is a site established to promote interest in aquatic plants. And yet, majority of the posts discuss questions like "how do you like my aquascape?"

You have to think a little bigger @_Maq_ - forgetting the terminology, which lets be honest, is not that important to any mildly intelligent person who will immediately accept that most aquariums look nothing like natural biotopes - it can't be overlooked that without Takashi Amano's influence, this hobby we love would be nothing like it is now.

Sure ADA is now a brand heavy money making machine, but Takashi Amano started with his creations long before he had any commercial interest - it was born out of a genuine passion for aquatic plants, creating heavily planted tanks at a time when most plants in aquariums were a bit of rotting Vallis in some blue gravel and the back of the tank. You may not like his style of tanks, which is fine - beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all - but you have to be willing to accept that differing preferences and styles exist, and Amano's were obviously heavily influenced by his Japanese culture.

There is also no getting away from the fact that without Amano's influence, there would be nothing like the interest and participation levels in planted tanks that we currently enjoy in the hobby. A great many people have been lured into the hobby as a result of seeing his tanks, or similar tanks inspired by him. Without those elevated participation levels, we would have no where near the number of retailers, no where near the availability and diversity of products, and without question no where near the variety and availability of plant species - many of the rare species you enjoy keeping, simply wouldn't be available. I remember when I first started with a planted tank 25+ years ago - you could count on two hands how many different plant species were available.

The shared knowledge on plant keeping would also be nothing like it is now - it's quite likely this forum wouldn't even be here without those participation numbers.

So long and short of it, you need be somewhat thankful that Amano did what he did, regardless of whether you like his tanks, or despise his company, because his influence has very likely impacted on elements of the hobby you enjoy today.

 

[zozo]

Diorama is not a specific term for a particular scenery or theme it could be any artificial lifelike 3-dimensional miniature composition in a box, cardboard, wood, metal or glass doesn't matter. You could name it a peepshow or a looking box and the scenery could represent anything, a Landscape, lakescape, Mountainscape, forestscape, cityscape with puppets as people on the marketplace and whatever you can scape. You can scape anything you want, and do it in a box which you can look(Dia) in/over/through(Horama) it will be a Diorama. 🙂

I understand the confusion with all the *ariums we use giving the impression that diorama is something else but it isn't...

The "Terra" is the land the "Aqua" is the water, the "Paludis" is the river shore that may be swampy (water and land) and the "Ripa" is the river itself. If you put something alive in it you get the prefix "Viva" The suffix *arium is the room or the space or the box the prefix is what the scenery holds the scenery in 3D in its total is a Diorama...

Having made something like this and saying I don't do Aquascappings and don't do dioramas then you are confusing and contradicting terms and it doesn't make much sense.

The term Nature and natural is a tricky one and even more confusing and I don't want to go that far into that... But it seems it's human nature to exclude themselves and the things they naturally do from nature. Can one determine a slice of nature by the looks of it without it being only a judgemental opinion?

 

[_Maq_]

Having made something like this and saying I don't do Aquascappings and don't do dioramas then you are confusing and contradicting terms and it doesn't make much sense.

I like your precision in using words. I agree with what you say. But go back to the post #1 in this thread and it'll be obvious that people generally make difference between "aquascaping" and performing aquarium hobby per se - which, as you correctly note - always involves making dioramas, "aqauscapes".

All in all, I just want to distance myself from fancy trends & consumerist approach to aquarium hobby. I believe you can understand what I mean. And I know my ranting will not change the situation. And... yes, @Wookii , I'm well aware for what we owe to growing market for this hobby - the good and the bad.
You know, I'm a tea connoisseur. I understand that to produce a kilo of good tea for me, we need a thousand ignorant drinkers of bad tea. Otherwise the good tea would remain out of my reach, and possibly it wouldn't be produced at all.
Economy of scale.

 

[zozo]

it'll be obvious that people generally make difference between "aquascaping" and performing aquarium hobby per se

I don't know and can only speak for myself and UKAPS... But, if asked some can pick aquascaping apart according to the set of rules and critique it. But I never read anybody saying "This is so bad it can hardly be considered aquascaping!" At least not at this forum... 🙂 Maybe, at some other forums, some people do, but bullies like this should not be taken seriously.

Ok!? Never mind a bare-bottom tank...

 

[Oldguy]

Some 'neutral' comments/observations.
As a boy with scabby knees my cold water tank always had a column of local sandstone so the newts could climb out of the water, some gravel on the bottom with Canadian pond weed and some pond weed with floating leaves and a water plantain as an emergent. One or two small water beetles and a few sticklebacks. All collected for free.
I then had a tropical fish tank with valis at the back and two crypts one at each side with an open space in front for feeding the fish.
In the later part of my life I have much the same set up. I never knew that I was aquascaping till I saw the term in a shop.
I played with CO2 diffusion about 35years ago and found that plants grew better.
I then went back to 'low' tech though I did not know it was called that when the gas regulator stopped working and lack of funds stopped me buying a replacement.
I now have 'high ' tech because, thanks to eBay, things are affordable (remember a time before Microsoft and internet search engines) and the choice of plants as changed.
Most are still 'easy' but grow well with CO2 and 'dry salts' for dosing.
I see nothing amiss with this and my Saturday pennies mostly stay in my pocket. I seldom buy plants and fish they just potter along with small fish lasting about five plus years before fading away, they seem to like good plant growth.
Oh I did try wood but found it went to peat over time, I now use 3/4" plastic overflow pipe, with lots of plants cable tied on it works very well, again cheap.
Must go the Conservatory fairy lights have come on so the bar must be open.

 

[milesjames]

I think from my perspective, the truth is it makes a large part of what makes it a hobby to me. Learning about the plants, understanding how to manage and care for them, how to develop depth through the scapes arrangement and the science of maintaining it is what keeps me coming back for more. I put my hand up to not taking the same in depth approach to fish but you only have to learn about them in the stocking phase then you move on. Where as plants if you have enough tanks can be on a new learning journey with every species you buy every 3-6months.

Then there is my truth, on why I started the hobby. My first experience of a true fish tank was at my local dentist. It was a large planted tank with a huge variety of plants and fish types, and I just loved watching the fish swim through the leaves and around the different parts of the tank. Without continuing to seek this experience of childlike wonder, I would not continue in this hobby.

 

[Tonalscape]

Spiderwood and dragon stone guy here ...

Yet you're largely mistaken when you say that these plants can't be kept without CO2; almost all of them can. But it requires something what "aquascaping" does not - patience, precision, diligence, knowledge, accepting the risk of failure, learning on functioning and needs of the plants. These were the features of hobbyists of old times, before consumerist approach with CO2-fuelled aquascaping prevailed.
That said, I admit that the best aquascapes are also based on remarkable skill. Yes, that's true. But it's a different kind of skill aimed at different goals.

I believe all of those things are called for in aquascaping, even just in the arrangement of foreign wood and stone together. In landscaping one makes a union of an aesthetics with function, health, and environmental aspects. I believe if you look at aquascaping today, all of these same elements can be considered. Of course, many people start with "I need a deck to put my BBQ on" and go no further...

If I compare my long ago idea of a tank before hearing of aquascaping ... I had no idea that the challenge of providing cover for fish and proper placement of plants for the plants to thrive, and still ending up with something I like to look at, would require so much patience, understanding of different requirements of species, diligence to do things in the right time and order and all of the maintenance, precision to adjust lighting levels and nutrient and CO2 levels to match...

There are plenty of wrong turns, and yes, trends driven by glamorous quick fix strategies that end up hurting fish and plants. There are artists who pay too much attention to the art and lose the priority which is the care of living beings. It's natural and I've experienced it myself. But as I think we agree, learning from our mistakes is important. So much learning is happening in these little boxes that translates to the wider world...

 

[_Maq_]

I believe all of those things are called for in aquascaping

I do not question these qualities in advanced aquascapers. They are good at our hobby PLUS they make their fancy creations.
I just regret the influence it has on general public - beginners. Quite recently, some amateurs present here their pitiful aquascapes, and it is obvious they pay attention to the brands of their equipment but sadly know nothing about water chemistry, microbial life, plant physiology or even plants as living creatures, about fishes, their demands for living reasonably happily, etc. etc. That's sad.
I know, human ignorance is eternal, but I suspect that aquascaping fashion partly fosters this ignorant approach to our hobby.

 

[Tonalscape]

"CO2 injection" and "natural" are incompatible terms

@_Maq_ I definitely appreciate your perspective. I think a lot of aquascapers share your disgust for many of the things you're disgusted by 🙂

On the other hand, aquariums are unnatural to begin with, since we first brought an argonaut out of the sea to study it. You have to make tradeoffs. The profile of manufactured aquasoil and CO2 and fertilizer is based on deep scientific knowledge that says we do all these unnatural things to achieve a more natural result in the unnatural circumstance of an aquarium. That's why all these things have their place in the hobby.

The conversation about whether CO2 injection belongs as one of the tradeoffs is a conversation within the aquascaping community, which is diverse. What I am seeing is a natural tendency for folks to join "camps" because a complex combination of tradeoffs is hard to come up with on your own. These kinds of perspectives, like "CO2 injection is such an unnatural act that out fish should be nowhere near it" are welcome and this is part of us all learning. If you want to understand why someone would say that CO2 injection and aquasoil are one way to make aquariums more natural, just look at the microscopic level.

 

[Guest]

Interesting side discussion, but perhaps we need to get back on topic and answer Georges original question; keep this thread moving in the right direction, so folk new to it don't get confused 😉

@_Maq_ If you want to open up another thread with a different and perhaps more appropriate title, to continue the side discussion, I can move the related posts there.

Why do you aquascape?

Be as concise or descriptive as you dare.

I am super curious about your motivations; you should be too... 😀

Cheers
George

 

[Red eye]

Why........The BLACK book you know the one.....is a addiction.......