English version of this article originally published in
Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine.
Welcome to the world of the Nature Aquarium! The purpose of a Nature Aquarium is to grow healthy plants in an aquarium to create an environment for fish to live comfortably and to let the living things coexist in the conditions close to those found in nature. However, it is not enough to produce an aesthetically pleasing aquascape. To create a beautiful aquascape, we need to design it with composition and colors in mind. Here, I would like to introduce several basic steps to produce a Nature Aquarium.
Takashi Amano creating an aquascape. He spends the longest amount of time in the step of placing composition materials such as driftwood and rocks. Taking a step back to see the aquascape in the distance, he considers the overall balance and makes subtle adjustments in the angle of driftwood.
inset : The section with white sand becomes the foreground, and the section with the dark soil becomes the background. After placing soil-retaining rocks, Amano arranges the driftwood with Bolbitis and Microsorium in the middle ground. Some space is set aside for planting in the background.
Substrate
A Nature Aquarium comprises several components. The first is the substrate, which is made up of several materials: dark sand that contains abundant nutrients for the plants, special soil in which plants spread their roots, and light sand that enhances the appearance of the foreground.
To create the aquascape introduced here, a piece of cardboard was used to divide the tank into the foreground section and the background section. The background section, where aquatic plants would be planted, was filled with the nutrients substrate and dark sand, and the foreground section was filled with light sand alone. The substrate was then sloped down from back to front. Lastly, the cardboard divider was lifted carefully out.
If the substrate is laid in sections as in this aquascape, you must exercise caution not to disrupt the substrate. Still, the dark sand can slide toward the front and make the lighter substrate unsightly if left without support. When shrimp Caridina japonica are added to control algae, their movement can also disturb the substrate. To prevent this, retaining stones are placed at the boundary of the two substrates. In this aquascape, lava rocks with willow moss attached by thread were placed side by side as retainers. As the willow moss grows, the rocks not only function as retainers, but they also enhance the natural feel of aquascape.
Driftwood
Next, driftwood is arranged inside the aquarium. Keeping the composition of the aquascape in mind, you need to consider the overall balance and determine the angles of driftwood pieces. Take into account the space for planting, as well. Driftwood not only forms the framework of the composition, but also serves as the middle ground of the aquascape.
In a Nature Aquarium, the stem plants that grow tall are often planted in the background. As they grow, the lower parts of the stems shed their leaves, send out roots into the water, and become rather unattractive. The middle ground functions to hide this unsightly part of the background.
Bolbitis and Microsorium can be attached to the driftwood. If you cut off as much of the large old leaves of Bolbitis and Microsorium as you can and fasten their rhizomes on driftwood, they will eventually develop new leaves and look beautiful.
The use of plants of different heights, along with protruding driftwood pieces, provides a three-dimensional layout that provides interesting textures and colors.
Planting
Once the driftwood is arranged, it's time to plant. Before planting, add water to the aquarium until the substrate is soaked. Otherwise, it is difficult to plant, since the substrate stays loose and does not firm up. On the other hand, if too much water is added, buoyancy makes it difficult to plant. In my experience I find it easiest to plant when just enough water is added to barely submerge the substrate.
In this aquascape, aquatic plants are planted in the substrate only at the background. When I plant aquatic plants in the foreground and middle ground, I basically plant one stem at a time using a pair of tweezers. The stem plants with fine leaves can be planted two to three stems together to create dense planting. This makes it easy to create beautiful bushes. Besides stem plants, Isoetes japonica and Cyperus with long narrow leaves are often planted in the background.
Once planting is done, the aquarium is filled with water. If you find stem plants tangled or their shoots pointing downward, now is the time to correct these problems with a pair of tweezers.
Plant Care
For aquatic plants to photosynthesize, light and carbon dioxide (CO2) are essential. For this aquarium, two 150-watt metal halide lamps are used, and an ample amount of CO2 is injected.
Liquid fertilizers are also added daily. The main fertilizers are one that supplements potassium and another that supplements iron. Adding these nutrients that tend to run short in an aquarium improves the color of the leaves on aquatic plants and gives you healthy plants.
Trimming is the most important task for growing beautiful stem plants. With repeated trimming, your stem plants will form beautiful bushes, eventually developing multiple side shoots and increasing the density of the leaves.
Trimming is done by cutting off grown-out stems with special scissors for trimming. Initially it may be difficult to decide the best places to make the cut, but there is an easy way to do the trimming that takes away much of the guesswork: if an aquascape is constructed with driftwood in the middle ground like the one shown here, you can use the driftwood as the guide to cut off the outstretched stems.
This type of aquascape can be altered in a variety of ways - by changing the type of driftwood and the way it is arranged, or by changing the type of aquatic plants. If you are new to the Nature Aquarium, you may want to try this type of aquascape, one you can trim and maintain very easily.
