Why fresh water aquascape gets more attention?

Stoney · May 13, 2020

I think planted tanks as a whole can look amazing, but when you compare individual plants with individual coral IMO it's not much of a competition. Corals have a huge variety of color and shapes that can get lost in a full tank shot.

flsalty · May 13, 2020

Tradition. Planted freshwater competition goes back way further than 20 years. Probably closer to 100 years.

andrewkw · May 13, 2020

They just aren't comparable imo. You can't build a long term reef in a day. Look at the trade show tanks, yes they are beautiful and jam packed, but do they look mature? No.

Disclaimer I've never had a freshwater tank but I would assume within a month or 2 or 6 you are going to have to do some pruning. It could be 1-2 years before your reef needs that depending on the corals you stock.

brandon429 · May 13, 2020

BullyBee you did a great job, keeping freshwater planted tanks free of algae and BBA in that much white spectrum is a true challenge.

brandon429 · May 13, 2020

in that fw tank I did all tap water, no co2, and just used plants that adapted to that condition. wanted low maintenance setup. I stocked heavy w fish to keep up co2 levels, water changes were super simple tap water xchange runs with dechlor. neons adapted/shrimp spawned a few times it worked well

chvvkumar · May 13, 2020

I am just starting with reefs after !20 years in high tech planted tanks. So I can give my input why it took me so long to get into reefs.

1. Most people are very familiar with plant aesthetics and it is natural to want to replicate all that greenery at home
2. Corals are sort of an alien looking aesthetics most people haven't seen in person
3. Difficulty the jump from fish only FW tank to high tech planted tank is big in terms of equipment and time. Salt water tanks (especially corals) are that much more involved still so a lot of casual fish keepers don't bother with it.
4. My personal observation has been that most coral arrangements, while technically harder to grow and take a lot of effort to keep alive, don't really lend themselves to create an eye pleasing lay out. For someone like me who still has some trouble telling apart corals and which corals take what amount of effort to grow, it makes it that much harder to appreciate a big stony coral colony.

All this makes planted tanks much more accessible to people who are new to the hobby.

These are some of my tanks:

ZipAdeeZoa · May 13, 2020

andrewkw said:
They just aren't comparable imo. You can't build a long term reef in a day. Look at the trade show tanks, yes they are beautiful and jam packed, but do they look mature? No.

Disclaimer I've never had a freshwater tank but I would assume within a month or 2 or 6 you are going to have to do some pruning. It could be 1-2 years before your reef needs that depending on the corals you stock.

This is a very good point, I've found most of my FW water tanks hit their stride around 3-6 months and just get easier from there. Meanwhile my nearly 1.5 year old nano feels like it just now might be starting to find its equilibrium... Possibly...

MichaelReefer · May 13, 2020

I'm pretty bad at aquascaping but I think my Freshwater is pretty good.

forestsofkelp · May 13, 2020

SR Reefing said:
So, I was watching YouTube then I come across Green Aqua fresh water aquascaping video. Then realize that there is competition for fresh water aquascaping for 19 years already.

AGA Aquascaping Contest

View all 23+ years of entries to the AGA International Aquascaping Contest, and get the latest info on this year's contest.

showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org

Here is a guy showcasing aquascaping

Why don't we have that competition in our hobbie? Or why aquascaping in reefing doesn't get this much attention?

I have ran, and aquascaped, FW and SW tanks for over 15 years; I say that only so people know I have experience in both. I have considered your question often.

I think the reason FW aquascaping is more popular is multi-layered. FW tanks are much more similar to gardens, thus, the ideas and design methods can be more easily carried over. FW tanks are much easier to re-scape, and can use multiple medias: woods, stones, gravel, sand, dirt etc etc. And FW tanks have a more limited color palette...so people tend to to focus on making them beautiful and peaceful with their arrangements. FW tanks also generally attract people who enjoy gardening, and it it has an image of peacefulness and balance. Its much easier to grow plants of any size, and they grow faster. The water is much easier to get and keep. Many people keep multiple aquascaped freshwater tanks in their homes, and even very large tanks are accessible to most people. An 10g sized FW tank is a fun little guy to scape with, and with 1 fish, would rarely need a water change. Total cost: $100. Thats not possible in SW. A 250 gallon FW tank is affordable, and even if high tech, everything fits in the corner of a room. A 250 gallon SW tank practically needs its own room to keep it alive

Saltwater aquascaping is a whole different ballgame and is, IMO, neglected. SW tanks are much more sensitive and expensive; a weekend re-scape is not great for the wallet and can risk tank crashes/death. Our media is limited to sand and coral rock. Most of our shape comes from live coral growth which isn't as predictable or malleable. And, it grows very slowly. A FW aquscape can be grown in a few weeks. A SW tank *might* be cycled by then. The other limitation is that SW tanks are very flashy; lots of brightly colored livestock, lots of different corals, and the hobby attracts people who enjoy that (at least, more than FW!). When people get bored in the FW world, they re-scape. When people get bored in the SW world, they add more fish/coral. Not to mention, the natural world is often reflected in these tanks. A beautiful stream has great natural presence, providing lots of inspiration. A big beautiful reef? Its usually a bunch of rocks with coral growing on it. Not much to "scape" or get inspiration from.

You can have an impressive SW tank with bad to middling aquascaping. Load up some fish and corals, keep it technically clean, and people will be impressed. Or pack it with SPS, or a wall of fruit style display. Heck, fake corals and FOWLR works too (most people dont notice). In a FW tank, scaping is most important; a wall of lush green plants can only do so much. Dead plants or fake plants look terrible.

To aquscape a reef tank appropriately takes knowledge of color theory, lots of planning, and self discipline to not buy every cool coral you see/want and to find the ones that fit with almost no error; you can't toss a plant but a live coral needs to be re-homed. Its not as varied in FW, and its easy to keep multiple tanks if there are different plants or fish you enjoy.

There is much more focus on technical skill and keeping rare specimens...as expected, since SW requires more technical skill than FW. Thats not to say the aquascaping in reef tanks is bad, but I will say its much worse than freshwater tanks on average. I would say its rare where I see a tank where the layout is the stunner. Its usually the fish or the coral variety that does it. But it makes sense...I mean, a SW aquarist has probably done a full aquascape 10-15 times over 15 years or so? Freshwater can be 5-10 times a year. Over 15 years, thats a lot of experience (and thats one tank!)

Its a complex question with no easy answer, but SW just does not lend itself to aquascaping. I agree it does need a big kick in the pants and the field needs some progress. If only we had someone like Amano.

flsalty · May 13, 2020

Another thing just occurred to me. I have see some cool scaped SW using fast growing softies. Unfortunately, "advanced" hobbyists scoff at those types of corals so that holds little interest for them.