All that is required are 1 – 5 photos of your aquarium, a simple entry form, and a signed photo release. You can enter entirely online. We will display all entries permanently on the AGA’s web site. You can also choose to have your tank entered in the 2012 Aqua Design Amano contest at the same time.

Winners will receive ribbons and cash awards
Closing date for entries: September 25
Winners announced: November 18

This contest just keeps growing and growing and growing! So fluff the plants, snap those photos, and enter your aquascape in the AGA contest to share with aquatic gardeners and artists around the world!

In an effort to aid worldwide economic recovery, there will be NO ENTRY FEE this year!

I just discovered a new planted aquarium website today, Scape Fu, which aims to provide podcasts relating to the planted aquarium hobby. The latest podcast featured former GWAPA president and blogger from Kryptokoryne, Ghazanfar Ghori. I’m really looking forward to see what new topics and guests will be featured in the feature. Check it out!

In an effort to match what I did to pretty-up the metal stand my 75G sits on, I decided against wooden paneling for the facade; instead I sewed and velcro’d a 100% polyester sheet of fabric to give the museum exhibit look to the piece. The fabric exterior also allowed me to build the structural support fully to the outside edge of the aquarium so that vertically the transition from stand to tank was very much in-line. I’m still not 100% decided on whether this aquarium will go in my fish room or living room, so I needed something aesthetically appealing enough for living room use.

The aquarium stand itself is built completely out of 2x4s, and completely over-engineered to hold several times the weight the 33G tank. Rimless aquariums need to be supported equally across the entire surface of their bottom panel, so I layed 2x4s across the top for support, tacking a piece of hardboard on top of that for a smooth surface. With extra scraps, I fastened a simple shelf inside of the stand for the filter and CO2 bottle to set on.

On top of the hardboard, I cut-to-size a piece of green yoga mat to provide additional padding for the aquarium to rest. With rimless tanks, any minor difference of pressure could potentially lead to a stress fracture along one of the seams. By padding the bottom, you mitigate that risk significantly. I ran the velcro backing strip along the rim of the stand, making sure to cover up the yoga mat so that the bright green foam was not visible.

I spray painted most of the stand black to minimize the possibility of the yellowish wood color showing through the polyester sheet in bright light. I also applied a polyurethane  sealant to the wood since water drips are inevitable. The aquarium itself is beautiful, with extremely clear glass and good workmanship where the panes of glass meet.

I’ve already had my 12G rimless aquarium from GLA setup for several months, and am very impressed with that tank. I’m looking forward to setting up this one, which will give me a little bit more room to aquascape than I have in the 12G. My current plan (subject to change) is to retire my 20H aquarium, and put this aquarium in its place. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to do that in the coming week or two.

The best way to spot them is to look for their spouts when they clear their blow-holes so that they can breath.

We only saw a small portion of the humongous mammals, but even their humped backs (hence the name, humpback whale) were large enough to appreciate their size.

During every surfacing, we always hoped that they would bring up their tail and splash it down in the water. We never got any huge splashes, but we did see several tails rise up out of the water.

In addition to the tails, we saw one whale who was rolling in the water a little bit, stretching and waving one of its flippers up out of the water.

The highlight of the trip for me was probably when we saw a mother cow with her calf. We watched the pair swim together for a few moments before they vanished from sight under the water.

In total, we probably spotted 5-6 whales during our two hour trip, but combined with the excitement of the sightings and the beauty of the mountainous surroundings, it was a wonderful excursion.

This particular species is a North American native called Polygonum hydropiperoides. It’s a pretty nice plant that can get red underwater, with nice white flowers when blooming.

Despite being rather small, these flowers are pretty attractive. I especially like the yellow centers. P. hydropiperoides is quite easy to grow and flower in captivity, and I would recommend giving it a try!

The second plant that was flowering is Polygonum praetermissum, but is often sold in the hobby as Polygonum sp. ‘kawagoeanum’. This one can also get red under high light, and is a very nice highlight plant for aquascapes.

The leaf shape is very distinctive, looking similar both submerged and emersed. Emersed, roots can sprout at every node, going into the soil as it creeps along somewhat horizontally.

The P. praetermissum flowers are slightly pink with the flower stalks themselves being a bit more pubescent than the P. hydropiperoides.

The flowers weren’t quite open yet when I took these pictures, but you can see that they’re still fairly nice looking.

Both of these plants would make wonderful outdoor pond plants, that would have the potential to reseed themselves and come back after winter. Comments welcome!

Vancouver is blessed with a warm Pacific stream which makes the weather much more mild than other places around the globe at the same latitude. The Northwest has a number of temperate rain-forests, with Lynn Canyon being a second-growth forest, but still very much influenced by the weather.

The first thing you notice is that everything is absolutely covered with several different types of moss. Some trees are 100% covered from the base all the way to the top. It’s pretty incredible!

Besides the moss, ferns are prominent throughout the forest there. We were hiking with a couple of locals from Vancouver, and they said that this was the greenest they’d ever seen the ferns. Of course, it was pouring down rain while we were out walking about. (Our friends told us that if we let the rain stop us from doing things in Vancouver, we’d never see or do anything.)

We followed a trail up above the canyon, about 3-4 stories up from the water, for awhile before heading down toward the river.

As I mentioned, it was raining pretty hard that day, so the water was very high and very rapid. Large rocks lined the sides of the water, leading to some breaks with sandy and peddle bars near the still areas.

Moss even covered the rocks by the river, despite getting more sunlight than under the tree cover. It made for some very pretty scenes, that reminded me of Riccia fluitans stones used in an aquarium.

We spent some time exploring the various nooks and crannies along the river, and at times hit sections that were impassable. In several instances, we had to climb 4 flights of stairs up the side of the canyon in order to continue following the water.

The folks in Vancouver are really lucky to have such a nice public forest so close to them in North Vancouver. If we had more time, I could have spent several days exploring the trails throughout this park.

Of course, that’s just reason to come back another time!

One of the first areas that we toured inside the aquarium was a series of biotope aquariums from around British Columbia. They really did a fantastic job showcasing the different habitats throughout the province, providing excellent signage and information plates throughout. As someone who really appreciates native North American habitats and fishes, this may have been my favorite section of the aquarium.

One of the natives that I enjoying watching was this sculpin (below). Since sculpin don’t have swim bladders, they lay prone on the ground and dart around. To me, this tends to give them a little bit of personality, and this particular fish seemed to be posing for the camera.

Speaking of swim bladders, we got invited into a classroom area by a couple of interns to watch them dissect a salmon. All the while, they pointed out the various prominent parts of the fish anatomy, including the swim bladder, heart, liver, testes, gills, etc… They also talked about how the aquarium tracks various fishes in the wild using embedded transmitters that they surgically implant into the animal so that they can monitor their life cycles.

Like most aquariums these days, they had a nice jellyfish exhibit, back-lit with the intense blue lighting.

One of the things I was most impressed with throughout the aquarium was the aquascaping ability of the maintainers for these tanks. In some public aquariums, they do a fine job showcasing the inhabitants of the tank, but in Vancouver, it was obvious that they were equally concerned with making the habitat equally as attractive without making it look artificial. A fine example of that is this reef “clownfish” aquarium where they used a combination of macro-algae, rocks, and anemones to really make a nice display tank. Well done!

Like the aquarium in Baltimore, the Vancouver Aquarium also has nice tropical exhibit which includes a rain forest area. The rain forest had a series of parrots, butterflies, and other animals from the Amazon on display.

They had a rather large aquarium showcasing one of my favorite South American beasts, the Arapaima, an air-breathing fish that can survive very low oxygen levels. They can grow to over 400lbs, and are very prehistoric looking creatures. I very much enjoy everytime I’m able to see one.

The Aquarium also has a nice amphibian exhibit, including a whole set of terrariums featuring frogs from around the world. I thought that this particular terrarium was another nice example of putting together an attractive layout, while still showcasing the tiny frogs therein.

It wasn’t just the small colorful frogs that were on display, however. They also included a few others, such as bullfrogs, which are an invasive species in this part of the country, which were originally introduced as a food source. (frog legs)

Outside, there were several much larger pools containing dolphins, whales, turtles, and other large sea creatures. While you could view all of the pools from above, each pool was also available to be viewed underground via a series of rooms that included more information and more views into the tanks. One area that was particularly interesting was an arctic fishes exhibit, showing fish and other animals that thrive in sub-zero waters.

Having been to several public aquariums throughout the U.S., I always hope that each new one will offer something different from the rest. The Vancouver Aquarium did that with theor B.C. set of exhibits, and their superior attention to presenting nicely aquascaped aquariums throughout. They also had an equally as impressive 4D theater which featured a short Planet Earth “Shallow Seas” film in 3D with water sprays, seat rumbles, and bubbles in the air during the show. It was a nice value-add to an otherwise exceptional experience. I highly recommend visiting the Vancouver Aquarium.

In addition to the very interesting trees, which are actually in the lily family, the park is home to some absolutely incredible rock formations. As such, we saw quite a few rock climbers trying to conquer the rocks.

Inside of the park there is no water or gas stations, so you need to fill up before entering, and carry in anything you would need. Remember that this really is a desert, and the sun was definitely out, even though we were there during some of the cooler months.

Just because it’s a desert doesn’t mean that there wasn’t plenty of life. The park is home to several different varieties of wildflowers, and of course, cacti and also succulents were present throughout.

In addition, little squirrels and chipmunks were all over the place. You could see some of their holes dug out in the hard sun beaten earth.

It’s really amazing that some of the rock formations were naturally formed. Take the one below (which would make a fantastic aquascape btw). How in the world did some of those gigantic boulders just happen to rest atop of the mass of other humongous boulders?

Then of course, there were the larger “rock piles” that were just as striking. Again, if we could find an aquatic plant that looks like a Joshua Tree, this would be a great scene to try to replicate in an aquascape.

The rock formations weren’t all boulder piles, however, as deeper into the park we came across these more water-shaped formations. We hiked a short distance to see a naturally formed arch, but I thought the rounded rocks were more impressive than the arch.

During our hike, we would hear rustling in bushes as we walked by, and every time it was one of these lizards scurrying through. I was perfectly okay with this, however, as I wasn’t necessarily hoping to come across a rattlesnake.

Proof that this desert has been traveled for centuries past is visible on several rocks in the form of Petroglyphs, inscribed by prehistoric Native Americans.

Once we crossed out of the Mojave Desert, and into the Colorado Desert, the Joshua Tree ceased to grow, and were replaced by acres of these very spiny cacti. The Mojave Desert is slightly wetter than the Colorado Desert, which is why the Joshua Tree is able to survive in that area.

Nevertheless, these cacti are still interesting to look at, exhibiting nice yellow flowers, which were also covered in spines.

As we were driving the last 10-20 miles out of the park to the south, the sun was setting on our right, and on our left the moon was rising. We stopped the car, and enjoyed this beautiful scene below. All the while, bats starting flying overhead, and we eventually headed out of the park and to our hotel.

We have lot of other pictures on Flickr here, if you’re interested…

We were lucky to go before the true start of the pond season, as one of their staff members was gracious enough to spend a good 45 minutes helping us find the plants we were after. Sometimes, this even included “weeds” that were growing in the same pots as something else they were selling. Normally, they would just discard these contaminants, so we were happy to take them off their hands.

They fit at least a dozen greenhouses, with 4-5 being walkable, and the rest being flooded with water, having pots sitting in them. We started through the walkable greenhouses, searching for plants on their stocklist, as well as, keeping an eye out for a suitable weed. When we ended up in the back flooded greenhouses, Cavan took off his shoes so that he could wade (ankle deep) to see what was growing in there. While the temperature outside was quite comfortable, those flooded greenhouses were like saunas, and were quite uncomfortable to spend too much time in. That didn’t stop gambusia and tadpoles from thriving in them, however (in addition to the plants).

It was quite apparent that lilies and lotuses are such popular pond plants, as they fully occupied several of their greenhouses. In addition to pond plants, the nursery also has a number of bog plants, including several different types of pitcher plants.

We ended up coming away with more plants than we could fit into our tanks. Several of the plants we bought in pots, such as Mentha aquatica and Ranunculus flammula, while others were weeds, including Potamegetons and this Gratiola virginiana.

Now the fun part begins. I’ve planted all of plants we got throughout my aquariums, and will evaluate whether or not they’ll grow submersed for long periods of time at our normal aquarium temperatures. After that, we’ll have to assess whether they are desirable for aquascaping. I’d like to encourage everyone to check out their pond centers to think outside of box about what plants should be grown in your aquarium. Chances are, you’ll find something interesting that you’d never otherwise find in the aquarium hobby.

Many of the saltwater aquariums there are the type that many hobbyists seem to be able to procure. They have a number of fan favorites including eels, clown fish, tangs, and various other fish you’d see in the movie Nemo.

I was a little bit disappointed at the complete lack of freshwater exhibits at the Seattle aquarium, although they did have a nice focus of fish native to the northwest region. In particular, they had a number of features surrounding salmon, for which the area is well-known for.

They had salmon at various stages of their lives, along with descriptions about what wild salmon would be doing, including whether or not they would be in fresh of salt water at the time. The aquarium also exhibited a large number of salmon ladders, which during the proper time of year would show the fish returning home from the wild to their hatchery. I hope to get back to Seattle sometime in the future during the salmon migration.

And of course, no aquarium would be complete without their water birds and mammals. The otters were particularly active that day, swimming back and forth, chasing each other, and seemingly having a grand old time.

While the aquarium didn’t have a single planted aquarium exhibit, the native habitat exhibits were worth the price of admission. All of the exhibits there were well-done, and the building itself is a modern facility. Overall, I would recommend visiting the Seattle Aquarium. After visiting the aquarium, I decided to walk across town to the Pacific Science Center, where I had previously spotted their beautiful glass-enclosed butterfly exhibit.

The science center features an IMAX theater, and a huge array of science-related exhibits. This facility is no-doubt largely targeted toward kids, but I still had a nice time browsing what they had to offer. Of course, the main thing I came to see was the butterfly exhibit.

To enter the butterfly room, you have to first go into an adjacent room, where the doorways have blowers to prevent the butterflies from escaping. Once inside, you are in a beautiful 2-3 story glass sun room with a number of tropical flowering plants. At first, I didn’t see any butterflies, but then I realized that they were all around.

They had quite a variety of different butterflies, a few that I recognized from when I spent some time down in the Peruvian Amazon. I’m not sure if some of them were actually moths or not, but all were very pretty. Some folks seemed to attract the butterflies to them, so when everyone left the room they were inspected by the staff to ensure that no critters were tagging along.

I really enjoyed my visit to both the aquarium and the science center. I have a few other photos from my trip on Flickr. If anyone else has been to these places, and would like to add anything I missed, feel free to do so in the comments.