New aquarium? Try these 3 aquascape styles!

Ah, finally you bought that aquascape aquarium. I bet you’re super eager to start aquascaping and setting up your tank.

Just a little more patience 😉

First ask yourself… how are you gonna set up your aquarium? If you haven’t thought about it yet, then it’s actually worth taking a sec to make a choice among aquascape styles and make a plan. At the end of the day, you’ll be much more satisfied about the final result. No clue where to start? No problem, I’ve got your back with some aquascaping tips and some of my favorite aquascape styles. Welcome to aquascaping for beginners!

Aquascape style #1: the Dutch-style aquascape

Many aquascapers consider the Dutch style to be the OG of aquascaping. You can read more about its history here, but right now I mainly want to talk about what this aquascaping style actually means and how to pull off a dutch-style aquascape properly. Because I know what you feel… you just wanna dive in now. 🙂

So, let’s get into it!

In a Dutch-style aquascape, the focus is mostly on plants. Not that fish don’t belong there, but they’re not the main characters. If you do go for fish in your Dutch-style aquascape, know this: your school needs at least 12 fish, even if you add more than one fish species to the tank.

Some tips for shaping your Dutch-style aquascape:

• Split your tank into 3 horizontal and 3 vertical sections;
• At the “focal points” where the lines cross, place plants you want to draw the attention to;
• Create depth by moving either the left or right focal point a bit forward, or by adding pathways. Make the groups wider at the front and narrower at the back;
• Don’t use too many plant species, definitely not more than 1 type per 10cm of tank length;
• Play with shape, size, and color to build nice contrast in your aquascape.

Aquascape style #2: the nature-style aquascape

My favorite of all aquascape styles! 🙂

With the nature-style aquascape, you’re going for an aquascape where neither plants nor fish are the main characters. The essence of this style lies in its story, its philosophy, which is recreating natural landscapes in miniature form, using wood or rocks to balance everything out. Nature-style aquascapes have 3 common layouts:

• Concave: looks like you’re admiring a landscape with a valley, perfect if you want to add a pathway and create depth using sand.
• Convex: all attention goes to the center, a bit like an island. Use tall stem plants or java fern in the middle and smaller plants toward the sides.
• Triangular: start from a corner and build a flow. Put all your hardscape (wood or rocks) in the same direction and let the layout guide the eye from one corner to the other, or toward the front.

Don’t forget the Golden Ratio! It’s still an awesome rule to create depth and balance in your nature-style aquascape. So, you don’t put your focal point dead center, because that splits your tank into 2 halves and kills the balance. Instead, you move it a bit left or right. You can see a little example below.

A nature-style aquascape gives you tons of creative freedom, honestly. You choose how many and what plants you use, as long as they vibe with the landscape you’re trying to copy.

Fish choice matters, too — base it on your layout: slim fish for tanks with tons of open space, and chunkier fish if your tank is super planted and busy.

Aquascape style #3: biotope aquascape

In a biotope aquascape, you basically recreate the natural home of your fish as realistically as you can. A biotope aquascape works best in big aquariums. The reason? You need a highly detailed design to really nail the natural environment you picked.

And it goes deep — biotope tanks can even be used to study natural ecosystems. This aquascape style is almost exact science, and the plants, fish, and even the water need to be as close as possible to the real environment you’re copying.

Examples of aquascape styles

Not super inspired yet? Here are some aquascape style examples to get the ideas flowing. Definitely check them out!
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Conclusion

Good aquascaping is mostly about solid preparation and making the right calls. Sure, you can totally shape your tank to your own taste, but keep the basics tight and stay consistent. Pick a style — whether it’s Dutch-style, nature-style, biotope, or other aquascape styles — and work it out detail by detail. Setting up your aquarium is a super exciting moment and honestly super rewarding. And with these aquascape style examples and guidelines, you pretty much can’t fail. 🙂

What’s your favorite aquascape style? Let me know down below!