Trends in aquascaping

[Daniel@R2R]

I've got 2 tanks going up soon, so I'm doing TONS of research on aquascaping. One thing that seems interesting to me is trends in aquascaping. Currently the NSA style of aquascaping is the popular trend, but there have been others including minimalist, and yep, even the rock wall was wildly popular at one point. Now, I realize that our understanding of function in aquascaping has grown, so some things we used to think were "rules" have been debunked (I'm looking at you, you old and now debunked "1 pound per gallon" rule."), but I don't think the old fads were entirely built on those rules. Rock walls weren't just popular because of the amount of rock we thought had to be used. There were other ways to put that together than a wall. You can also kind of see this if you look back at old aquascape inspiration threads (the ones where people post their favorite aquascapes). There are some similar scapes in there, but there are also some very different ones now than say 10 years ago.

So, what are your thoughts? What are current trends in aquascaping? Where do you think this will go next?

 

[DopamineKata]

NSA and HNSA seem to be the big trends these days.

 

[piranhaman00]

Do what pleases you not what pleases others (trends)

 

[DeniseAndy]

I think it should go with what your livestock needs and the look you want. Some may want a lagoon type, some a shelf edge, some artsy, some functional, I guess it is up to the person.
I go with what I like to see and what the animals I keep need.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

take a pic of a coral reef w/o corals, this is what your hardscape should look like, overgrow it in corals & viola, a reef

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

A lot of people do NSA/HNSA aquaecapes nowadays, or minimalist ones. Personally, I like a big pile of rock. It just offers so many caves for small fish, while also allowing many coral placement options. The most vital part of your aquascape is that every fish in your tank has a choice of at least three caves. Eg. a tank with 18 fish needs at least 20 caves. I think that the next "trend" will be separate top heavy islands on a large, open sanded. At least, I am seeing more of these.

 

[Sean Clark]

I did a bunch of low mushroom shaped bommies for my latest tank. I basically have 13 islands with lots of swimming space above and in-between them with lots of overhangs for the fish to "hide" in. As the corals grow in and start to fight, I can move or rotate the entire structure independently to solve the problem.

 

[Cool tangs]

Bahhh

Do what makes you happy and fulfilling your taste and requirements there's no wrong or right

 

[tgee]

I don't know yet how well I did, but for my upcoming build I tried to find a balance between having lots of places for fish to hang out, plenty of space for corals, and enough space in between for flow. Hopefully it will look good too. We'll see.

 

[afrokobe]

what is HNSA?

 

[TheDragonsReef]

I always put livestock needs first. I do think nsa looks appealing and is best for maximizing flow but doesn't give many hiding spots for fish. For example my moray would hate an nsa scape and so would a hippo tang since they like to sleep wedged between rocks.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

what is HNSA?

Habitat Negative Space Aquascaping. Basically the same as NSA, but with caves and cracks for fish in the base of the structure.

 

[REEFTIDE]

I did a bonsai style for my home tank and I've not really been happy with it for the year and a half the system has been up. Def needs some caves but the problem with that is that it kills flow for some corals. On the other hand, because I have no caves the 40+ fish I have in there live under the corals/ around the corals/ in between the corals lol. There's no winning

 

[Utubereefer]

I have a minimalist scape on one side of the tank with a large hiding cave on the other side.

 

[vabben]

Buy a bunch of rocks and start putting scapes together, you will eventually find what you like and start gluing! I was in the same boat, watching and reading too much about scaping for my new 120. I messed with different designs and realized I don't have the patience to break rocks and glue them back together.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Some choices are tank shape driven. My 90 with a center overflow was difficult. I wanted some height but there isn't a lot of room front to back, particularly in front of the overflow partition. I chose to build a high but open structure.

 

[sp1187]

fabbed.
no rock.
hide all pumps, wave makers, returns, overflows and cables.
"too high" isn't really a thing.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Aquascape "trends" are just practical extensions of the media we are using to build our scape. When everyone used pounds and pounds of wet LR gluing it together to make a sculpture wasn't practical. So we made piles of rocks. There was still thought put in to create caves and overhangs and so on, but it was mostly functional and rushed because you really want that rock to stay wet.

Now people have dry rock so why not take the time to overthink your rock sculpture. Some people came up with the idea of "NSA" (although the concept was probably arrived at from many different people independently, as many technologies are). The idea makes sense. Make a bunch of holes and open space so you can see more swimmies and fit more coral while having less flow dead spots.

Then there are the minimalist scapes which may make real LR more practical because you don't need much. And you have lots of space for fishes and corals that grow fast.

I think there will always be these trends but as this is only a hobby it's a very personal thing how you set the tank up, even if yours fits into one of these categories.

 

[jfoster38122]

I never glue rock
I think I'm going to get in both 75 gallon mixed reefs I have and change the scape in both of them
I'm thinking open through the entire middle of the tanks and stagger the rocks so you can't tell the middle is open
I'm sure once I pull everything out and try to do that it won't be as easy as it sounds and I'm sure I'll have to adjust my gyres too

 

[Sump Crab]

I’m a big pile of rocks kinda guy. I would agree that most ppl seem to enjoy following a fad, even one as ugly as NSA lol