I have a secret interest. It’s in aquascapes.

Aquascapes are beautiful aquariums that are artistically arranged with plants, rocks, and driftwood to create an interesting display. Often, they can look like landscapes out of the real world.

I had an aquarium all throughout growing up, and fortunately Allan is very much into aquariums and I am lucky enough to be able to enjoy his stunning fish tank all day long! If you haven’t seen the timelapse of our fish tank yet, I highly recommend you check it out here on Vimeo:

Moving and Fish Tank Timelapse Photography – VancityAllie.com from VancityAllie on Vimeo.

I wanted to share with you some of my favourite aquascapes in the world.

One of the most famous masters of aquascapes is Takashi Amano from Japan. (All below photos credit to http://www.adana.co.kr)

As you can see, it takes a lot of time, effort and design strategy to build an amazing aquascape.

Another one of my favourite aquarium designers is the Aquarium Design Group. All below photos credit to ADG.

The first three photos are freshwater tanks, and the last one here is a “paludarium” which is a combination of a fish tank with some “on-surface” vegetation and sometimes creatures. If you look carefully you can see the chameleon.

Personally, I would LOVE to have a proper paludarium is our apartment, but it’s really difficult to do and expensive. And Allan loves the fish tanks so I don’t think it is going to happen

So we talked about it and I think we’re going to continue with the freshwater aquarium and start turning it into a proper aquascape. We used to have plants growing to the top of the plant, but some bad choices in fish led to all the plants being eaten. We’re now rid of those fish, but it’s a long slow road back to cultivating the plants again.

Allan bought himself a brand new light that will help with the plant growth. For those who know this stuff, it’s a Coralife Aqualight Strip Light 4 x 65 Watt. TONS of light! We’re planning on eventually scaping it like an Amano tank with the rocks and carpet of Riccia (the stuff that looks like grass). Very excited! 

Allan built a DIY CO2 reactor out of a plastic bottle and some tubing to encourage more plant growth. Pretty cool for only $5 worth of equipment. It bubbles out all day long, just with a little mixture of yeast, baking soda and water. Lasts for weeks.

Stay tuned! We’ll be sure to post some photos of our new aquarium aquascape when it starts looking cool!