Avant-Garde Style Aquarium.
The newest yet already popular style in aquarium decoration is the Avant-Garde style. Following modern European-style apartment renovations, the concept of “interior design” emerged, and we encountered the fact that the surroundings of an aquarium in a room can be quite unexpected. This freshwater aquarium design option allows you to implement any idea in aquarium design, such as creating a fantastic world. Its undeniable difference from others is that, while incorporating a wide variety of design options, it has no natural analogue.
Today, stores offer the most fantastic decorations, substrates of unnaturally bright tones, and artificial plants representing the flora of planets that exist only in the designer’s imagination. You can decorate the aquarium with unexpected objects made of glass, bright plastic, or technogenic elements.
Volumetric back and side backgrounds, ceramic products mimicking sculptures, ancient amphorae, and fragments of sunken ships are widely used in decoration – combined with originally selected lighting, this produces a completely fantastic effect. In addition, there are many elements that glow in the dark. Aquarium decoration manufacturers actively offer numerous plastic plants shaped like real Ludwigia, Ambulia, and Echinodorus, but in crazy abstract colors.
Therefore, an avant-garde aquarium often represents a cosmic landscape. Bright substrate imitating the surface of an uncharted planet, terraces, and glowing plants create a truly fantastic spectacle. Bizarre unnatural aquarium shapes, multicolored lamps, colored substrate, air bubbles, unusual strange objects, and ceramics allow you to create an ultra-fashionable design that organically fits into any complex interior.
Since the avant-garde style involves creating a special aquarium, first of all, its ideal combination with the design of the room where it will be located is taken into account. The main role in an avant-garde aquarium is played by the color scheme – unnatural or combined substrate, artificial vegetation, lighting, and even inhabitants are selected in accordance with it. Choose non-standard shaped stones, play on contrasts by placing a black stone on a dazzling white substrate.
However, live plants have no place in an avant-garde aquarium. Firstly, because natural tones are somewhat muted, and against the bright background of other decorations, plants will look faded and sometimes completely tasteless. Secondly, lighting is usually chosen to be non-standard, emphasizing the fantastic picture; moreover, sometimes lamps are installed from the bottom or side. Of course, such light will be insufficient for plant growth and life.
As for the inhabitants, they can be diverse, but it should be noted that few fish can live in such an unusual landscape for them. The most appropriate placement for such an aquarium is in a high-traffic area where long and calm contemplation is impossible. A bright colored glowing spot will quickly attract attention, create an impression, and just as quickly “release” the viewer without forcing them to relax. An avant-garde aquarium can be installed in a nursery, creating a fairy-tale plot within it.
Mixing decorations from different styles very rarely leads to a successful result, even for experienced and talented designers. An avant-garde aquarium requires neatness and cleanliness. While in ordinary aquariums a greenish pebble, for example, looks quite acceptable and natural, in an avant-garde one it will ruin the whole picture. Therefore, water changes and good filtration are the key to the beauty of your home water body.
Aquarium Built into a Partition (Wall).
There are several ways to install aquariums, including integration into an interior wall (the aquarium is viewable right through), integration into a wall with a closed back side, and installation of an aquarium on a pedestal or a heavy slab fixed in the wall like a balcony.
See-through aquariums look impressive only with intensive filtration and ultraviolet water sterilization; otherwise, even slight cloudiness can negate the entire effect of the aquarium in the interior. The same applies when keeping bottom-dwelling fish that like to dig in the substrate, such as goldfish, in a see-through aquarium. An aquarium with a closed back wall will look much better in the interior, and slight cloudiness resulting from the vital activity of carps, goldfish, and other “diggers” will be practically invisible.
Among all installation features, the most important is the preparation and arrangement of the location that will serve as the base. If you plan to build the aquarium into the wall structure, you need to pay attention to what the wall is made of. Make sure that the wall portion serving as the base for the aquarium is made of reliable material. For drywall walls, welded frames made of profiled steel are constructed for aquariums, maintaining rigidity and safety margins.
The base where the aquarium is installed must be made perfectly flat and horizontal. The bottom of the aquarium (especially a large one) experiences enormous loads and, if the base is uneven, will conform to its shape. If the curvature is critical, the bottom will certainly burst, and if the base unevenness is insignificant, it will still affect the lifespan of the aquarium, with the risk of bottom cracking remaining quite high throughout this time. To isolate the aquarium bottom from the base, a 4-5 mm thick polyisol gasket is used. It perfectly distributes the load and smooths out minor unevenness.
Another important point is allocating space for aquarium equipment and organizing access for maintenance. As a rule, the taller the aquarium, the more space needs to be left above it. The minimum free clearance above a 60 cm aquarium is considered to be 40 cm. Thus, the opening height in this case will be 1 meter. At the design stage, water, drainage, and electrical utilities must be laid, and space must be provided for a canister filter, UV sterilizer, and other aquarium equipment.
Coffee Table Aquarium.
A designer aquarium in the form of a coffee table or bar counter will become a real decoration for any interior. It will always be the center of guests’ attention and serve as a truly original solution for both a home office and a living room. These aquariums are designed to fulfill human needs for aesthetic enjoyment of nature – specifically, a piece of the underwater world, which is equally pleasant to contemplate over a cup of coffee or a business conversation.
Aquariums imitating a coffee table or bar counter do not require overly complex maintenance. They feature all necessary equipment to maintain optimal conditions for the inhabitants and function to some extent as self-cleaning biosystems.
The tabletop is made of tempered glass with faceted edges resembling crystal facets. The simple shape only emphasizes the fragility and beauty of the living landscape. The Japanese-style decor is very restrained: only natural sand, large gray stones, a few tropical fish against the background of mangrove branches, and a couple of live plant bushes create an excellent landscape for calm contemplation.
Nano Aquarium and Nano Aquascaping.
General Principles of Aquarium Design. 
