Aquascaping 101: EVERYTHING You Need to Know
If you've been captivated by stunning underwater landscapes online or mesmerized by impressive planted tanks at your local fish store, you might be eager to try your hand at creating your own aquatic masterpiece. Aquascaping freshwater tanks is an enjoyable and fulfilling hobby that blends animal care, gardening, science, and art. While it takes some research and time to craft beautiful scenes, beginners can find success with the right advice. In this article we'll explore a few composition hacks that will put you on the fast track to creating truly captivating aquascapes.
Composition: The Heart & Soul of Art
In the viusal arts, composition refers to the way in which different elements like lines, shapes, colors, and textures are arranged in order to convey meaning, emotions, or to tell a story. Design principles such as balance, proportion, perspective, and contrast all work together to direct the viewer's attention while achieving a cohesive and visually-appealing piece. Nailing this aspect while planning your aquascape is key to producing that "wow" factor in your finished work. If you don’t consider yourself creative or as someone with “the eye” for good art, don't worry– there are a few cheats to help you craft an eye-catching composition, regardless of experience level. Let's dive in!
Hack #1: Use Simple Division Ratios as a Guide
There are many tried-and-true ratios for arranging key elements in visual arts. You may be familiar with a few like the Golden Ratio, Fibonacci Spiral, or even the Rule of Thirds. Although these are all fantastic guidelines for composition, you might find them to be a little too advanced or overwhelming as a beginner. When considering a division ratio that is both beginner-friendly and visually compelling, there is no better choice than the simple triangle! Consider the following examples, where the blue areas represent negative (empty) space and the red areas are occupied with plants and hardscape.
Upside down triangle or “V” shape
This option is excellent for long aquarium models. The goal is to keep the mass of hardscape and plants on the sides of the tank and have them gradually slope towards each other, creating a valley of negative space as a focal point.
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Upright triangle or pyramid shape
Keep mass centered to the middle of the tank and sparse towards the edges. This layout is often used with elements of sand and driftwood to give a beachy island appearance. It's a great choice for cube style aquariums or tanks that are taller than they are wide.
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Side Triangle
Build up mass from one side of the aquarium and gradually decrease it as you move towards the opposite side. This style is an excellent choice for rectangular tanks.
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Hack #2: Keep it Asymmetrical
You may have noticed that in our real-life examples above, the triangles are off-centered. Fist-time aquascapers are often tempted to create perfectly symmetrical tanks; however, asymmetrical tank compositions are almost always preferred, and for good reasons:
Replicating Nature
Usually the aim of aquascaping is to mimic terrestrial or aquatic scenes found in the natural world. Many natural environments exhibit irregularities in the arrangement of rocks, trees, plants, and substrate. By incorporating asymmetrical design and placement, we can create more authentic and convincing scapes.
Visual Interest
Asymmetrical layouts create visual interest and engage the viewer. The human eye is naturally drawn to elements that break away from perfect symmetry, making an aquarium more captivating and intriguing. Compare the following two aquascapes– which draws your attention more?
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Although both scapes incorporate similar elements in terms of hardscape, substrate, and plant choices; one is vastly more visually compelling than the other. The symmetrical tank on the right feels stagnant and rigid in comparison to its dynamic and inviting counterpart.
Enhancing Depth
Asymmetry contributes to the illusion of depth and three-dimensionality in an aquarium. Natural environments are rarely flat and uniform, and asymmetry helps recreate the irregularities and contours found in nature.
Hack #3: Bump Up the Contrast (In Key Areas)
Another hack for creating visual interest in your composition is to add elements of contrast or opposing nature. Whenever you incorporate an element of contrast, the viewer’s eye will be drawn to it, creating focal points in your composition to help guide the viewer through a visual story. This can be achieved in many different ways:
Contrasts in Color, Shade, or Light
Consider placing a red plant next to a group of green plants, or a white substrate next to dark grey hardscape. Create shadows in your aquarium by placing hardscape, large-leafed plants, or floating plants in key areas, or by adding spotlight LEDs. These dramatic shifts in color and light will naturally create visual intrigue while highlighting key areas in your scape.
Contrasts in Size, Shape, or Texture
You can also create visual interest by placing elements that are small and large, short and tall, thick and thin, or rough and smooth directly next to each other. This could be done with any of your hardscape, substrate, or even plants. Think in terms of thick driftwood next to spindly thin spiderwood, or large jagged dragon stone next to small smooth pebble substrate.
A Note on Focal Points
Well-placed contrasting elements will create focal points in your aquasquape. If you have too many focal points, however, it may create an overall feeling of chaos and disorganization. A good rule of thumb is to have 1-2 well-placed focal points in a small aquarium, or 3-5 in a medium-sized aquarium. Large tanks have a bit more leeway, so you can use your artistic license to determine how many elements are sufficient for harmony and balance. Keep in mind that negative space can be a focal point in itself, and it’s totally okay (& sometimes preferred) to have those open areas that provide visual rest while emphasizing other key features.
Hack #4: Play with Perspective
Creating the illusion of perspective will be your secret weapon when it comes to maximizing your aquascaping space and creating larger-than-life scapes. There’s a few tricks that will force perspective in your composition:
Working in Layers
Consider your aquarium as a 3D plane rather than a 2D canvas. Visualize looking from the top down into the aquarium and separating the aquascaping space into horizontal segments from the front to the back of the tank. Try varying the placement of elements into each of these different fields to add layers of depth to your scape. You can add as few or as many of these layers as your heart desires!
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Building a Visual Slope
Visualize your aquarium from the side and draw a diagonal line from the bottom front corner to the top back corner. This is roughly the balance of free to negative space that you want to keep in your aquascape to give the illusion of depth without feeling cluttered. This sloping distribution of visual mass can be achieved in a variety of ways: building a slope with egg crates covered by substrate, keeping large plants in the back and short ones in the front, adding increasing layers of rock or wood, or any combination of the three. Creating a visual slope will allow you to take full advantage of the vertical space in your tank, providing depth and perspective to your overall composition.
Notice how the following aquascape achieves a slope of visual mass by placing carpeting plants in the foreground, medium height plants in the midground, and long stem plants in the background. The effect is an aquascape that fills the eye without feeling overwhelming or chaotic.
Working Large to Small, Bottom to Top
If you look outside your window right now you’ll notice that the objects closer to you are large and lower to the ground, while the ones in the distance appear small and elevated. We know that the tree on the horizon is not actually ant-sized; it’s just a matter of perspective. We can recreate this natural phenomenon to force perspective in our aquascapes. The key to doing so is incorporating multiples of a similar element in different sizes, with the largest version in the foreground and sizes getting progressively smaller as you move up and towards the back of the tank. You can do this with various sizes of wood, rock, or plants. In order to see the smaller items behind the larger ones, you will want to couple this method with creating a slope, which will also strengthen the optical illusion.
Notice how the above aquascape incorporates repeating elements that are larger in the front and smaller in the back. This technique tricks our brain into perceiving a great distance when, in reality, it is probably only a few inches! The illusion is further enhanced by a light sand pathway that contrasts heavily to its surrounding dark rocks, carrying the viewer's eye further into the background. It's almost as if we are walking the little path ourselves with our gaze!
Side note: These pathways are fantastic for creating depth in your composition, but they are often difficult and time-consuming to maintain. If you're new to the hobby, you may want to hold off on this technique until you've got a few scapes under your belt.
Choosing the Right Flora & Fauna
We could use every trick in the book to create a convincing perspective in our aquascape, only to have the illusion broken by stocking the wrong plant or fish species. Typically this happens by choosing fish or plants that are too large compared to the other elements in the tank. That’s why most aquascapers prefer nano or slow-growing species of fish, shrimp, and plants. A few popular nano fish species to consider would be neon tetras, ember tetras, chili rasboras, white cloud minnows, and danios. It’s also important to note that some fish are known for uprooting plants, so steer clear of them if creating a beautiful aquascape is your main goal. Some species to avoid would be cichlids, goldfish, tiger barbs, plecos, loaches, and rainbowfish.
Notice how this Neon Tetra school compliments the following scape:
Neon Tetras usually grow to be about 1 - 1.5 inches. Let's imagine that this aquarium also housed a Common Plecostomus, a species often sold to first-time fish owners in big box pet stores. Did you know that the Common Pleco, although small when young, can grow to be almost two feet in length? Let's explore what this tank would look like with the addition of a Pleco about 15 inches long.
Although still stunning, this scape loses its impact once the scale is disrupted. The smaller fish add depth and harmony to the piece while keeping the focus on the aquascape. The larger fish distracts the viewer's eye, reduces the magnitude and realism of the scene, and creates a point of tension in the scape.
Adding a Pre-Made Aquarium Background
Adding a solid colored aquarium background can help maintain depth in your aquarium by hiding HOB filters and other aquarium equipment or cords that may break the illusion. If you’re feeling really overwhelmed by the idea of trying to create an underwater landscape on your own, you could also “cheat” a little bit by starting with a pre-printed nature background.
Hack #5: Practice Patience & Enjoy the Process
Composing an aquascape will likely require a lot of trial and error, planning, and revision. Avoid buying any live plants or fish until you've finished placing your substrate and hardscape. More than likely, you'll want to let your design sit for a few days before adding water, just to ensure you're happy with your choices. Keep in mind that it's difficult to change your aquascape after adding plants, fish, and water, so it's worth it to take extra time to be sure about your scape before you fully comit.
Above all, just remember to have fun with it! You can use these general guidelines, or forge your own path. This will be your personal slice of nature to enjoy, so ultimately you can do whatever you want with it, as long as it’s not harming the tank inhabitants. Just be warned that once you set up your first planted tank, you’ll quickly realize how addictive the hobby can be. Don’t be surprised if you start collecting aquariums over the following years as you continue to experiment and grow. Welcome to the wonderful world of aquascaping– you’re going to love it!
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