The Spirit of Amano

As probably many of you already know, last days have been times of turmoil for the international community in Aquascaping. Unfortunately, apparently there have been a number of cases of breach of rules of various contests, with the subsequent disqualifications of those participants in some of them. I am sure those disqualifications will continue for the remaining of this 2020 season of contests, as result of those events.

However, I do not want to linger in this article in what happened or not, nor mention individuals or organisations involved into that. Instead, I prefer to discuss about the context and what this means for Aquascaping.

Blog - Slow Scaping: Recovering the true love for Nature Aquarium

It has been awhile since my last entry in this page. However, I have been far from idle in this period, busy developing a large project I am working on, but also putting lot of thinking about Aquascaping in general. This has been an important period of maturation, which has brought me some new thoughts and understanding. I am a strong follower of the principles set by Takashi Amano, and probably as many others, I have done lot of search in his words and works, always trying to disentangle his mastery of Aquascaping. Amano has been inspiration for many, but he has always been cryptic about his philosophy. Probably, this was intentional, so to allow others open their own paths, him being just a portal to access to this new world of understanding about Nature.

But regardless this desire of Amano for making Nature Aquarium grow in the community and spread, opening new ways, I have been feeling that the message was, somewhat, distorted. And that, it was a matter of worrisome for me. As the master passed away, it is now up to us, as community, as lovers of this hobby (or form of art), to preserve the message for the future. But seeing the dominant forms of Aquascaping since his death, I really feel is being lost. Still present, as many use his lessons about Nature to make their works, but at the same time, evolved into something entirely new but missing authenticity.

Article - CO2 Q&A - The science behind

Fig 1.: CO2 diffuser.

During my time on internet, I have noticed many questions about the use of CO2 and its interactions inside the ecosystem of the aquarium. They are not only related to its role into the photosynthesis and how to dose it, but also about some of its chemical and physical properties, or effect in livestock. As usual, many of the answers I have read are quite misleading and lacking of scientific basis.

One of the goals of The Living Tank is to provide solid and scientific-based information, and make it accessible to all the hobbyist of the Aquascaping and Planted Aquarium. Because of that, and considering the confusion about this nutrient into the aquarium, I have decided to prepare a "not so short" article about it.

News - Results on IAPLC 2016 -Rankings & Facts

Advert for IAPLC 2016

As many of you already know, the results of the Internatonal Aquatic Plants Layout Contest (IAPLC) for 2016 have been published today. This is a long-waited moment for many of the participants, and as every year, it is also the moment in which some of the submitted works start to appear in the social media. These works will, undoubtedly, condition the Aquascaping trend for the next year, so it is worth to keep an eye into them.

The full ranking is available through the IAPLC website, but I provide you a direct link to it, here.

In The Living Tank, we have thought to provide some information based on these results, with some facts and side rankings that you can find interesting.

Takashi Amano - A life of passion, a story of love for Nature

Dear readers,

Today is a bit sad day. Today, it is the first anniversary of the death of Takashi Amano, creator of the Nature Aquarium concept, founder of ADA, and more important than that: an artist who many of us, aquascapers, consider the Master and the one who truly captured the spirit of Nature in his creations. The social media is commemorating this day by posting the comments people did on the day that mankind lost this genius. I was really touched by his passing away, and I felt compelled to express it to my friends, family and close people that I have in my social network. I did it with the following words: