Decorating a decorative tropical aquarium.
Any aquarium, until touched by a designer’s hand, is simply an upgraded water container. Therefore, the interior contents of your aquarium play an equally important role in harmoniously blending the aquarium with the interior of your home or office. A true aquarium designer will definitely take care of both the beauty of the underwater world and the harmonious placement of the aquarium in the apartment’s interior. A properly selected aquarium design also means creating favorable conditions for the life of fish and other hydrobionts that will inhabit your aquarium. Unfortunately, many hobbyists do not take aquarium decoration seriously, contenting themselves solely with the beauty of the fish. But to think this way is to shortchange yourselves: among plants, driftwood, and rocks, fish look much more spectacular, and skillfully planted vegetation can make just as great an impression as the fish themselves.
The joint maintenance of various decorative fish is very popular, especially among beginners. Most often, communities of unrelated species are kept if water requirements are not too strict and behavior does not threaten the community as a whole. Consideration is given not to the geographical distribution of fish and plants, but to the commonality of their living conditions. In a decorative aquarium, the selection of fish and plants is based on decorative principles. The combination of shapes, sizes, and colors matters here. It is better to keep fewer different fish, but more specimens of each species. Schooling fish should number at least 6-10 individuals. A major role is played by the uniform population of the middle, upper, and lower water layers. Others create fish communities that include species originating from a single location, such as African lakes. These species require hard, alkaline water and numerous limestone caves.
Aquarium hobbyists can generally be divided into several groups. The first, quite numerous group consists of collectors of various fish. They breed them, thanks to which we have many rare fish in our aquariums. The bodies of water of such hobbyists are usually densely populated with numerous pets. However, they are unsuitable for the growth of most rare and beautiful plants (especially in aquariums containing large, substrate-digging fish).
The second group includes a small number of hobbyists who keep and propagate various species of aquarium plants. As a rule, their water bodies are chaotically planted with many rare species. Fish take a back seat for such hobbyists, but again, thanks to them, we have many rare, beautiful plants in our aquariums.
And finally, there is another, also rather small group of hobbyists who keep decorative aquariums at home, populated with beautiful, tastefully selected fish and a variety of plants; in such aquariums, you can see rocks, driftwood, and more. Among decorative aquariums, there are bodies of water whose setup and decoration are carried out in strict accordance with a specific natural biotopes of a given geographical region. The natural living space for fish that many hobbyists try to recreate in an aquarium can look completely different, and achieving this is not so difficult with the help of various decorative items.
Choosing the aquarium itself. The main materials from which aquariums are made are acrylic and silicate glass. Glass aquariums maintain high transparency for a long period of time and are therefore used more often. Although acrylic aquariums offer wide possibilities regarding sizes, acrylic glass scratches easily. In addition, acrylic loses its transparency over a long period of time. The dimensions, as well as the ratio of length and depth of the aquarium, affect the type and composition of the landscape. It is better to choose a rectangular tank or a “panorama”, where the prevailing dimension is length. Corner aquariums (deltas) with a large bottom area are also suitable, allowing for an interesting perspective.
The volume of the aquarium does not play a huge role, but the larger it is, the easier it is to create attractive compositions of live plants, and the richer the choice of decorative elements for setup. Such an aquarium is perfectly suited for a cozy room with a calm interior and classical furniture. Creating a landscape in a narrow, screen-like aquarium is quite difficult. As a rule, such aquariums are populated with small fish that do not harm live plants and require suitable living conditions. It is better to get a wider aquarium to have the opportunity to create an underwater landscape over a large bottom area. Now let’s think about height. A too-high aquarium is unnecessary for plants. Standard medium-sized aquariums will likely have a height of about 40-50 cm. For plants, this is already quite a lot, since creating decent illumination at the bottom of the aquarium is difficult even at a height of 40 cm. Creating illumination in a deep aquarium is only possible using complex and powerful light sources.
Composition in the aquarium. Integrity of composition.
Last changes and additions were made on August 29, 2012.
