Inspiring Ada / Amano Related Pictures

[George Farmer]

does anybody know what sort of time scales are involved in the lifecycle of one of these tanks ?

I'm just curious as to how mature some of these setups are when displayed/photographed and how long they
are left in place before being broken down and re-scaped ?

I imagine foreground/carpets are added complete, rather than adding a few and growing it over a few weeks/months.

It depends mainly on plant species. Layouts with mainly slower growers i.e. ferns, Anubias, crytps etc. will last many months, even years (his massive tank is over 2 years old now I think).

Faster growers i.e. mostly stem plants will mature very quickly, a few weeks or a couple of months. I imagine the stems are pruned back and back to create the lush, bushy appearance and when the time is right the aquascape will be ready for photographing. The point at which a fast growing layout is ready lasts only a few days until it need re-pruning etc.

Most "pro" scapers will tear their tank down every few months and start a new layout. Like an artist painting a new piece. Those that are luck enough to have numerous tanks can have the luxury of having a long-term aquascape filled with slower growers and a "tinkering" tank where they can experiment with new ideas etc. and everything inbetween.

Speaking from personal experience my 33 gal. / 125 l. was a sort of mish mash of all the above. I had a Java fern that lasted almost three years, this was the focal point of which the rest of the layout developed, that changed every couple of months. I think the longest the layout remained in its same state was around 3 months.

 

[oldwhitewood]

I think long term a stem layout will evolve but I know a lot of Amano's tanks run for 2 years or more. Now if the same plants that were in there first off still remain or not is a mystery to me, I would be interested to investigate this futher.

I change my tank a lot but that is because I am never happy. I think though with my rio 125 it ran for a long time, I had a field of e tenellus and java moss attached to bogwood. What happened was the moss crept into the echinodorus and began taking over, but it became really hard to spot it and remove it. Eventually it overtook everything and starved out the tenellus which I should have thinned out but never got round to it. The layout eventually failed because I neglected it.

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Ive seen these pictures before, very cool.
Its always good to share any ADA related info up here, even if its only for me
Any links like that ADA or not should be shared IMO knowledge is power

 

[MoreCoffee]

Thanks gf225 & OldWhiteWood,

Whilst looking at the pics, I just got wondering about the lifecycle phases of these tanks from initial concept, through setup, maturing, maintaining, display and finally being taken down ..... although it almost seems a bit of a crime to break up tanks as good as those.

Creating these aquatic works of art requires much more than the right equipment and aquascaping knowledge.....they obviously require artistic vision !

 

[George Farmer]

Creating these aquatic works of art requires much more than the right equipment and aquascaping knowledge.....they obviously require artistic vision !

Couldn't put it better myself.