Lets talk about aquascaping techniques

[checkerboard]

I guess for me it depends on what's the tank set out to achieve. If you simply want it as a hobby and to entertain, then you can pretty much do whatever you want. Of course, i believe that one wld still want it to look decent and nice.
Of course, if it is for competition etc... then you might need to be scape and be more cautious about concepts and all...

However, i must stress that concepts serves as a guide... dun be inhibited by concepts. For me, aquascaping is like painting, the aquascape should eventually reflect the mood, character or desires of the artist, that's depth for me...

[peterkoh]

Just curious ...how is a planted tank being judged anyway ? Is there a category for biotopes ? Amano's tanks look visually stunning but I think they are far from what exists in nature.

[Simon]

peter, it depends greatly on the judges preferences, which sometimes, tends to lean more to a certain style of aquascaping.. I think what Takashi Amano is creating is what he describe as Nature to his own context and his japanese culture of zen and not biotope setup..