# Aquascaping - Amano notes, AGA 2004 Convention



## John P.

Thanks, Steve, for writing this review. Good ideas in there, many of which I've gleaned from studying his tanks. Helps to have it detailed as yoiu've done!


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## DaAverageJoe

Also, buy the newest edition of TFH magazine... it contains like 3 sections on Amano and his tips.


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## Betowess

Make this a sticky! *Thanks Steve*!!


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## scolley

My pleasure folks! Hope it helps someone... I suspect it will help me anyway. Having a steel-trap colander for a brain, writing things down helps them stick for me! :icon_wink


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## Nolan W.

Excellent tips there, Steve. Thanks a lot!


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## Cruise Control

scolley said:


> [*]Light colored sand provides good contrast to plants.


I thought dark coloured substrate gave better contrast? Or is this just a personal preference?


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## bc_hawaii

Many good tips for beginning or advanced aquascapers... Thanks!

Anyway you can buy the DVD online?


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## scolley

Cruise Control said:


> I thought dark coloured substrate gave better contrast? Or is this just a personal preference?


RESPONSE AND GENERAL DISCLAIMER

These are notes transcribed from lectures by Mr. Amano. Whether they are his opinion, facts, or something in between is open to discussion. It it what he said.
What he said is open to question, since I heard the lecture in English, as spoken by Mr. Amano's translator. The lectures were given in Japanese (which I don't speak).
I could have misunderstood, or transcribed a concept incorrectly.
I only wrote down things that interested _me_, which colors the contents greatly. I'm sure I left out lots of great stuff that would be of interest to other people.




bc_hawaii said:


> Anyway you can buy the DVD on line?


I believe it is only available to Aquatic Gardeners Association (AGA) members, for $30 USD. Membership in US is $15 USD, $20 everywhere else.

So I essentially paid, with membership, $45 for the DVD. But I get other membership benefits that you can read about on their website.

The DVD itself has multiple lectures of potential interest to aquatic gardeners. The two Amano lectures were:


A two part lecture where Amano shows slides of many tanks, new and mature, side by side with nature scenes they are inspired by. Discussion is mostly about the artistic and aesthetic, not technical. Not to be missed. In the next part, he shows many progressive slides of building and maturation of his gargantuan home planted tank, which he expresses as the culmination of his career of in aquascaping, requiring all his skill to be successful and algae free. Some technical discussion.
A second lecture by Mr. Amano is the actual aquascaping of an open-topped, AGA style, as performed by Mr. Amano. It's long, but well worth the ride, watching him build a tank, as he describes what to do, and often "why" he does things as he does.

I'd personally trade any two of my Nature Aquarium World books by Amano for this DVD. Not quite as many pictures in the DVD, but it has a lot more explanation of content.


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## Ash

How big is Mr Amano's Home tank?


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## scolley

I don't recall, too lazy to watch the DVD's a 4th time to find out, but I believe it was on the order of 2.5 to 3 thousand gallons.

It looked about 12 feet long by 6 feet wide by 5 feet high. Several people could scuba dive in it at the same time. It faced an open room, by was also visible on either of the short sides. He indicated that it was a real challenge getting enough light for things to grow on the bottom since in nature there is a practical limit below which plants can't get enough light to grow. And I believe that depth was 36", which he was exceeding by a pretty good bit.


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## Ash

Whoa man 12ft is huge!


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## Skyfish

Ash said:


> Whoa man 12ft is huge!


Yes it is :icon_bigg


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## miket

> Light shining up from the back bottom looks great! And will light any ripples on the surface from an angle beneath, highlighting them.


anyone have ideas on how to accomplish this? has anyone tried this techinique? i'd love to acheive the rippled river look, with any technique.

thanks,

-mike


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## Jdinh04

Great tips, i'll keep them in mind the next time I scape my tank.


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## scolley

miket said:


> anyone have ideas on how to accomplish this? has anyone tried this techinique?


Not me. But it looks so darn good, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm gonna figure it out!


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## miket

i agree. i'd pay good cash to the person who cracks the method of gaining....uhh....ripples.


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## SCMurphy

miket said:


> i agree. i'd pay good cash to the person who cracks the method of gaining....uhh....ripples.


Metal halide lighting will give you ripples, if you have a water return that causes surface waves. For pictures Amano uses a hairdryer to ripple the surface.


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## Matak

What does this principle mean?:


> 1. Plant all groups in odd numbers.


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## scolley

Matak said:


> What does this principle mean?:


Simple... if you are planting things in groups, like a cluster of anubias, or a cluster of some stem plant, don't use an even number of groups. Don't plant two clusters of anubias. Plant one, or three, or even five. Not two, or any even number.

FWIW - I suspect this does not apply once you get to large numbers. Who's gonna know if you have 8 or 9 sets of a plant?


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## Matak

Thanks Steve


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## kam

Do you have a picture of Amano's home tank. I'd really like to see what the man has at home.


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## scolley

Someone has a thread here that link so another site, Italian I think, that has pics of that tank. Someone mentioned scuba diving to clean it I think, so maybe a search on "scuba" might turn it up.

The AGA DVD is loaded with pictures of his gigantic home tank, from site preparation all the way through final product. That fantastic journey could be worth the purchase of the CD just for that alone.


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## CherylRogers

I hate to be an old meanie, but you must be a member of the AGA to purchase a convention DVD. This is a deal we made with Amano to get him to agree to be taped. We are not allowed to sell outside our membership. Even so, if you join for a year and purchase a DVD, then you get both the DVD and four new issues of The Aquatic Gardener.

Cheryl Rogers
AGA Membership Meanie


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## juanBeegas

http://www.naturacquario.net/amano/

There you go. It's best viewed with IE and it's the 5th set up on the page.


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## fishyface

not getting much with that link :icon_frow looks like it's in italian or something but definately not getting any video.


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## scolley

Works great with my IE v6, SP2. It's got a bunch of pics that fad in and out as your mouse hovers over certain areas. May not work with all browsers, is my guess.


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## ja__

scolley said:


> I don't recall, too lazy to watch the DVD's a 4th time to find out, but I believe it was on the order of 2.5 to 3 thousand gallons.
> 
> It looked about 12 feet long by 6 feet wide by 5 feet high. Several people could scuba dive in it at the same time. It faced an open room, by was also visible on either of the short sides. He indicated that it was a real challenge getting enough light for things to grow on the bottom since in nature there is a practical limit below which plants can't get enough light to grow. And I believe that depth was 36", which he was exceeding by a pretty good bit.


9270litres WoW roud:


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## fishyface

scolley said:


> Works great with my IE v6, SP2. It's got a bunch of pics that fad in and out as your mouse hovers over certain areas. May not work with all browsers, is my guess.


i guess i was hoping for a video link :icon_redf


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## splandorf

In the Nature Aqurium article in the March issue of TFH mag it says flying foxes are used to eat course black algae. Will they cross over to eating any types of hair algae. I have a 55 gal tall. My plants are doing well and so is the hair.


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## xamoman

miket said:


> anyone have ideas on how to accomplish this? has anyone tried this techinique? i'd love to acheive the rippled river look, with any technique.
> 
> thanks,
> 
> -mike


how about led lights. they are bright lights that take little space


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## Anti-Pjerrot

> On first trimming, let stem plants grow to the top, and then trim to halfway point.


What does this mean? (Im foreign :icon_roll )


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## scolley

Anti-Pjerrot said:


> What does this mean? (Im foreign :icon_roll )


Amano believes that when you first plant a tank you should not touch it until any stem plants grow to the top of the tank (leaves at the surface of the water). At that time, and not before, you perform your 1st trim, where you give it hard trim - cutting your stem plants down to 1/2 their height.


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## Anti-Pjerrot

Thanks - I sent u a PM


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## natx

Is this his large home tank you guys were talking about?


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## scolley

natx said:


> Is this his large home tank you guys were talking about?


That's the very one!


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## FelixAvery

^^


> Several people could scuba dive in it at the same time


they would be a bit cramped lol


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## mnsnowdaboy

natx said:


> Is this his large home tank you guys were talking about?


actually that is not the one if you're talking about his "big" tank.

it's this one.


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## scolley

That's the same tank. Just a different perspective and a lot more growth.


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## Jessica

Niigata 2005 - Takashi Amanos home tank - Photo Gallery by Oliver Knott the aqua creator at pbase.com



Love Google.

I'm very little, and I would kill that beautiful aquascape if I SCUBA'd in that.
I believe, to clean that, you would need Go-Go-Gadget arms.


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## mnsnowdaboy

oopsy, guess it is.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums

I need this


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## James From Cali

Thanks for this thread. I need the tips to figure out how to scape my tank!


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## retoid

I wanted to mention this if it was not already posted.

http://www.adana.co.jp/_e_howto/









How to Layout-Making Manual is a booklet, explaining step-by-step layout making instruction manual. Each page is saved in PDF format, and each file is about 1-3MB.


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## [email protected]

*Thanks*

Setting up a new tank now - Will follow alot of these - Cheers


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## dekstr

I have all 3 of Takashi Amano's Nature Aquarium World Books.
He only gives aquascaping tips on book 1. Book 2 is where all the large aquariums are. Book 3 only focused on small sized aquariums.

Tips on book 1:
[img=http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/7521/img2333cu9.th.jpg]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2316.JPG]
[img=http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/5078/img2332jn6.th.jpg]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2331.JPG]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2329.JPG]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2309.JPG]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2323.JPG]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2324.JPG]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2303.JPG]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2321.JPG]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2326.JPG]



Large aquariums on book 2:
[img=http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2763/img2292no9.th.jpg]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2293.JPG]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2294.JPG]
[img=http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3214/img2295ui7.th.jpg]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2296.JPG]
[img=http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/7176/img2297eu6.th.jpg]
[img=http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/IMG_2298.JPG]


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## Guest

hey this is great info!


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## hooha

Mark your calendars for Nov. 14-16th - Amano will be one of the speakers at the AGA convention this year at Atlanta. Dr. Tan "The moss ID guy" will also be speaking - sounds like a good lineup!


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## Barbels

*Which DVD to buy??*

I can't be buying too many of these DVD's, actually I shouldn't be spending money, period. With that said, which one should I buy? 
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/merch.html

I don't know how likely it is that someone would be familiar with ALL of these, but if anyone has a suggestion, which one do you think might be best? I'm interested in any aquascaping techniques they might discuss.
Thank you.


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