The 2010 Acuavida Aquascaping Content results have been announced and are online. The overall winners are listed here. To view the actual gallery of results, please use the following link:

http://www.aac.acuavida.com/gallery/AAC_2010/

Here are the top contestant’s aquariums…

Mini Sized Aquariums

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

Medium Sized Aquariums

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

Large Sized Aquariums

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

Many more fantastic aquascapes from the AAC contest online here…

Two months ago, I tore down the Riparium that was in my 20H, and replaced it with a more traditional aquascape. I was using it as more of a practice aquascape in advance of an aquascaping demonstration I was giving at the time, rather than an earnest attempt at producing the best scape ever. Despite not fitting that description, I’m rather pleased with how it’s shaping up.

For starters, I’ve always been more successful with larger aquariums in the 40G-75G range, while the 10-20G aquariums never seemed to return the results I was looking for. I think I’ve finally managed to balance out the lighting, CO2, and dosing for this 20H as I don’t have any algae, and the plants are looking really good. I had some initial problems where the plants were melting, but after raising up my metal halide light and adjusting the fan, I think I can attribute that problem to excessive heat.

I’m housing some Super Red Kribs in here along with some white clouds and zebra danios. A few of these fish will likely end up out in my pond for mosquito control very soon. The Ranalisma rostrata has nearly filled in the foreground. The Blyxa aubertii is contantly sending up flowers, and the Bacopa sp. ‘Araguaia’ is poking out of water surface. Comments/critique welcome!

About a month ago, I order my first rimless aquarium from Green Leaf Aquariums down in Florida. The aquarium that I had been eying for some time was their “bookshelf tank,” which is a 36″x8.3″x9.4″ rimless aquarium; dimensions that are unique to GLA’s product line. The alluring and challenging thing about these dimensions are the fact that it is such a wide tank, without very much depth to create a smooth transition from foreground to background.

Three and a half weeks ago, I decommissioned my 20L aquarium that was sitting on a wire shelf and began preparing to setup the new 12G bookshelf tank. Since rimless aquariums generally need more support than traditional designs, I built a small platform out of 2x4s and plywood to for the aquarium to rest on. For padding and aesthetics, I cut down a green yoga mat and laid it over the platform. Now that I didn’t have to worry about the wire-rack bowing and causing a leak in my new aquarium, I set out aquascaping it.

I decided to go with a minimalistic approach for this aquascape, consisting solely of a locally collected crumbly slate, and only two plants species – Eleocharis sp. ‘Japan’ and Blyxa japonica. For substrate, I combined several different bags of old ADA Aquasoil consisting of Amazonia, Africana, and Malaya, and set to work positioning the rock. I built up a prominent structure on the right side, leaving an expansion of loosely united pieces on the left.

Three weeks later, the Blyxa japonica is growing wonderfully, while the Eleocharis sp. ‘Japan’ is exhibiting the same slow growth that I’ve seen in other aquariums. That’s okay, however, as I really like the look of the three mixed Aquasoil types against the Blyxa background.

Click for larger image

For filtration, I’m using a miniature ZooMed canister filter, and have a Hydor Koralia Nano running for added circulation. The tank shares a 20 pound canister with three other aquariums so it has pressurized CO2 running throughout the day. I’m very pleased with the aquarium itself, being a very clear, well constructed, and attractive unit. Comments/critique welcome!

Last fall, a couple GWAPA members got together at Paul’s house to help him aquascape his 90G aquarium. To remind you, just after planting, the new aquascape looked like this below. Obviously, the initial planting did not feature many stems in the background.

Just after planting...

Now, several month later, the tank has really grown in. Paul made a few minor adjustments to the original placement of the wood in the aquarium, which I think now looks better than one day one. The foreground is growing in very nicely, and the Sagittaria subulata in the middle background is adding a very nice jungle look. The Cryptocoryne looks especially healthy in this aquarium.

Currently...

I think the hardscape, foreground, and mid-ground look pretty good. The background looks good, but I probably took the picture about a week past its prime. I think that when Paul trims the stem plants, and they grow back up to about 3-4 inches above the tallest rock, it’ll be perfect. What does everyone else think of this aquascape? I will pass any comments onto Paul…

On Saturday, a fellow GWAPA member, Rico, invited a few of us over to help him aquascape a new 75G aquarium that he had just bought. Originally, we were going to aquascape his 90G aquarium, but a leak developed in that tank, and he had to replace it with the 75G. My friend Cavan and I showed up mid-afternoon and helped Rico finish transferring stuff out of his 90G, bring in the the new 75G, and off we went. Rico had some manzanita wood and dark river rocks to use as hardscape items.

It took us a little while to figure out what direction we would take with the hardscape material at hand. The problem we originally ran into was figuring out how to get enough height in the hardscape, but we ultimately discovered the right combination of manzanita branches, zip-tied them together, and solved that problem. After the wood was in place, we filled in underneath it with the river rocks. Never having scaped with river rocks before, I wasn’t exactly sure how it would turn out, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The rocks match Flourite Black Sand almost perfectly!

For plants, we used Ranalisma rostrata in the foreground, which should fill in as a nice short grassy lawn. In the mid-ground, we used Blyxa japonica and Hygrophila sp. ‘Kompackt’. As a transition plant between the foreground and mid-ground, we used Staurogyne sp. ‘Porta Vehlo’. Finally, in the background, we used Blyxa aubertii and a broad-leafed Sagittaria species. Ultimately, I hope Rico will remove the Sagittaria altogether and replace it with just Blyxa aubertii, but we didn’t have enough of that plant to do it in the beginning. Finally, for a little bit of color, Rico had some stems of Limnophila aromatica, which aren’t visible in the picture, but should be very nice to the right of the B. aubertii on the left.

Above is the picture a few hours later after Rico filled it up and added back in the fish. Please ignore the three rocks placed on top of the manzanita to keep it from floating — those will be removed in a few days after the wood is waterlogged. So, how did we do? Comments/suggestions welcome!