AGA aquascaping contest: categories and judging

Cho Jaesun’s planted landscape — A planted landscape by Cho jaesun.Cho jaesun · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Resized; uncropped.

Read this first

Կարևոր ծուղակ

The fourth photograph on an AGA page is not the fourth placed layout.

Entries placed 4 to 10 in each category are shown together as a Top Ten group, and they are displayed in tank volume order, not in placing order³. The AGA says so plainly. Only the top three are in rank order³.

This trips up almost everyone who quotes AGA results, because the page looks like a ranked list and reads like one. It is not. Counting down the page and calling the fourth entry fourth place invents a fact.

The AGA explains why it works this way, and the explanation is honest. Its judges rarely rank far beyond their own top ten, so past that point, in the association's own words, the rankings are essentially meaningless³. It would rather publish nothing than publish a number it does not believe.

So on this site, 12 AGA records carry no rank at all. They are labelled with the award the contest actually gave, Top Ten or Honorable Mention or the Larry Lampert Most Innovative Award, and they are never printed as a placing. The rule is enforced in the code that builds these pages rather than left to whoever writes the copy.

One exception. In 2025 the AGA published a full numbered Aquatic Garden ranking⁶, so 2025 has a genuine fourth place and it is the only year that does.

What an AGA category page actually tells you³

1: First place. A real placing.
2: Second place. A real placing.
3: Third place. A real placing.
4 to 10: Top Ten. Sorted by tank volume. Placing not published, and not knowable from the page.

The second trap is smaller but worth knowing. The AGA's own website gives two different founding years for the association, 1985 in one place and 1997 in another, on the same page¹⁰. The contest's start year of 2000 is not in doubt, because the archive goes back to it¹.

A gradient, not a layout. The AGA is the one contest that could give us a real photograph, and it has not been asked yet.

The comparison that matters

A hobbyist body and a manufacturer, running the same idea two different ways.

Scale first, so the comparison is fair. In 2025 the AGA received 426 entries from 365 people in 52 countries⁶. IAPLC in its record year received 2,617. The AGA is small. It is also the one that shows its working.

IAPLC and the AGA contest, from their published rules² ³
	IAPLC	AGA
Categories	None. One global list.	Aquatic Garden split by tank volume, plus Classic, Biotope, Dutch, Paludarium, Wabi-Kusa and Riparium
Entries per person	1	3
Small tanks	Compete against 500 litre tanks	Have their own volume bands
Judge feedback	A short note on the Best Aquarium picks only	Written comments published on many entries, signed by the judge
Scoring published	No	The criteria and their point values are published in full
Full ranking	Yes. Every entry gets a world rank	No. Only the top three per category are ranked
Anonymous judging	Not stated	Yes, stated. Judges see a number, not a name
Judge independence	Not stated	Yes, stated. Judges do not confer while scoring
Prize	Cash up to JPY 1,000,000	A small cash prize and a certificate

The score sheet is public

Aquatic Garden is scored out of 200: overall impression 70, composition and balance and use of space and colour 60, selection and use of materials 40, viability of the aquascape 30². Dutch, Biotope, Paludarium, Wabi-Kusa and Riparium each have their own sheet².

Judging is blind

Every entry is identified by a number only. Entrants may not show photographs to judges or ask the board for advice. Doing it twice can lead to disqualification².

Judges score alone

The rules say judges do not communicate with each other while scoring. They confer only for the Best of Show and Most Innovative votes at the end².

Comments carry a name

Anyone can read what a judge thought and disagree with it¹. IAPLC publishes nothing comparable for the bulk of its field.

The point that cuts the other way

The AGA combines its judges' scores using a harmonic average of each judge's ranking rather than the raw scores, and then publishes only the top three³. So it is more transparent about method and much less transparent about result. Both things are true at once and this site says both.

Two sheets, two theories

The Aquatic Garden sheet judges a picture. The biotope sheet judges a fact.

Put the two AGA sheets side by side and the split running through this whole subject becomes visible in the arithmetic. One asks how the layout feels. The other asks whether the named place really looks like that, and whether those species really live there.

Aquatic Garden, out of 200²

70: Overall impression
60: Composition, balance, use of space and colour
40: Selection and use of materials
30: Viability of the aquascape

Biotope, out of 200²

70: General impression and faithful reproduction of the biotope
60: Accuracy of the plants and animals for that biotope
40: Accuracy of the hardscape
30: Condition of the aquarium

IAPLC secondary screening, out of 100

50: Recreation of a natural habitat for fish
50: Everything else, in five equal parts of ten

Do not misattribute this sheet

The biotope sheet above is the AGA's own². It is the best documented biotope sheet anywhere, which is why it appears here, but it is not the Biotope Aquarium Design Contest's sheet. That contest's own criteria are not published anywhere we could reach.

Peter Kirwan’s Mountainscape — Mountainscape, by Peter Kirwan.Peter Kirwan · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Resized; uncropped.

The record

Ցուցահանդեսի լավագույնը

Best of Show, 2000 to 2025.

Look at 2005, 2006 and 2012. Best of Show went to a 32 litre tank twice and a 54 litre tank once¹. That cannot happen at IAPLC, where a single uncategorised list lets large tanks dominate the top ranks. It is the clearest single argument for the AGA's volume bands, and it is the reason you might choose this contest if you have a small tank and a modest budget.

AGA Best of Show, as recorded in the AGA archive
Year	Aquascaper, as recorded	Country, as recorded	Title	Volume
2025⁶	Muhammad Yusuf	Indonesia	Veins Of Nature 2	300 L
2024⁹	Luis Carlos Galarraga	Brazil	Great Wave	324 L
2023¹	Juan Puchades	Spain	Radiance	536 L
2022¹	Matthew Israel O Manes	Philippines	ASCEND	242.9 L
2021¹	Matthew Israel O Manes	Philippines	SYNERGY	242.9 L
2020¹	Luis Carlos Galarraga	Brazil	Whispering Shadows	323 L
2019¹	Guan Fuhong (观富宏)	China	夏至	300 L
2018¹	Luis Carlos Galarraga	Brazil	Soul	324 L
2017¹	Roger Goh Yu Quan	Singapore	Breath Of The Wild	495 L
2016¹	Wang Chao (王超)	China	Dream (梦境)	370 L
2015¹	Paulo Vitor Pacheco	Brazil	Deep Nature	219 L
2014¹	Gregoire Wolinski	France	not recorded	310 L
2013¹	Marcelo Tonon Chiovatto	Brazil	Sunrise in the valley	116 L
2012¹	Leandro Artioli	Brazil	Unknown way	54 L
2011¹	Hui Kam Man	Hong Kong	Alongside	270 L
2010¹	Siak Wee Yeo	Malaysia	Beyond Horizon	182 L
2009¹	Michael G.W. Wong	China	Beauty From Above	240 L
2008¹	Chow Wai Sun	China	Flies the dragon	432 L
2007¹	Chow Wai Sun	China	Ashy Range	324 L
2006¹	Law Kai Chun	Hong Kong	Summer Dance	32 L
2006¹	Filipe Alves Oliveira	Portugal	Across the River	240 L
2005¹	Justin Law	Hong Kong	Secret Garden	32 L
2004¹	Oliver Knott	Germany	Resting Place	560 L
2003¹	James Hoftiezer	United States	Sleepy Hollow	378 L
2002¹	Luis Navarro	United States	La Ropa beach	208 L
2001¹	Detlef Hupfeld	Germany	not recorded	80 L
2000¹	Frode Roe	Norway	not recorded	530 L

Not verified

2006 carries two Best of Show entries in the AGA archive, Law Kai Chun and Filipe Alves Oliveira¹. Either the award was genuinely shared that year or the archive has an error. We print both rows and we do not choose between them until the AGA answers.

The dataset

Every AGA placing this site holds.

Fourteen years captured in detail: 2000, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Names, countries and titles are exactly as the AGA recorded them, including the character sets⁴. Where a name is a link, the official record carries enough detail for a page of its own.

An italic entry with no number is a Top Ten or special award record. It finished somewhere between fourth and tenth and the AGA does not say where³, so neither do we.

AGA records held, 55 entries across 14 years
Year	Placing	Aquascaper	Country	Title	Tank	Volume	Record
2025⁶	1st	Muhammad Yusuf	Indonesia	Veins Of Nature 2	120 x 50 x 50 cm	300 L	AGA page
2025⁶	2nd	Darushmarchiano	Indonesia	Borneo	120 x 45 x 45 cm	243 L	AGA page
2025⁶	3rd	Luis Carlos Ardid Galarraga	Brazil	Galaxy	120 x 60 x 50 cm	360 L	AGA page
2025⁶	4th	Mawan Huda	Indonesia	Spring	120 x 50 x 50 cm	300 L	AGA page
2024⁹	1st	Luis Carlos Galarraga	Brazil	Great Wave	120 x 60 x 45 cm	324 L	AGA page
2024⁹	2nd	Ismael Aguilar Soria	Spain	Rolling River	120 x 60 x 55 cm	396 L	AGA page
2024⁹	3rd	Dong Jin Shin	South Korea	Meteor	150 x 60 x 60 cm	540 L	AGA page
2023¹	1st	Juan Puchades	Spain	Radiance	150 × 65 × 55 cm	536L	AGA page
2023¹	2nd	liang jin	China	zenith	120 × 60 × 50 cm	359L	AGA page
2023¹	3rd	赵刚	China	向往	120 × 60 × 45 cm	323.9L	AGA page
2023¹	Top Ten	Luis Cardoso	Portugal	Flow of Nature	120 × 60 × 45 cm	323L	AGA page
2022¹	1st	赵刚	China	未知的家园 (The Unknown Home)	120 × 60 × 45 cm	323.9L	AGA page
2022¹	2nd	Ivan Tancler	Brazil	Wave	155 × 55 × 45 cm	383.6L	AGA page
2022¹	3rd	Luis Carlos Galarraga	Brazil	Samurai	120 × 60 × 45 cm	324L	AGA page
2022¹	Top Ten	Luis Cardoso	Portugal	Cradle of Nature	120 × 60 × 45 cm	323L	AGA page
2021¹	1st	Pavol Kulanda	United Kingdom	Forest in the wind	120 × 60 × 45 cm	324L	AGA page
2021¹	2nd	liang jin	China	Invite the moon	120 × 60 × 50 cm	360L	AGA page
2021¹	3rd	Eakthanat Isarathikul	Thailand	Revolve pluse	120 × 60 × 50 cm	360L	AGA page
2021¹	Top Ten	Zhao gang	China	听瀑	120 × 60 × 50 cm	359.9L	AGA page
2020¹	1st	Luis Carlos Galarraga	Brazil	Whispering Shadows	120 × 60 × 45 cm	323L	AGA page
2020¹	2nd	LU CHENG YU	Taiwan	Traverse	120 × 60 × 50 cm	359L	AGA page
2020¹	3rd	DouMing Adrian Mok	Canada	Scalare Summit	150 × 60 × 60 cm	540L	AGA page
2020¹	Top Ten	Jae-Sun Cho	South Korea	Positive nihilism	120 × 60 × 45 cm	320L	AGA page
2019¹	1st	GUAN LIWEI	China	漫林碧透	120 × 60 × 45 cm	324L	AGA page
2019¹	2nd	Miguel Ángel García	Spain	Live on Fallen Tree	130 × 55 × 65 cm	460L	AGA page
2019¹	3rd	fernando boturao francischelli	Brazil	Nintai	120 × 60 × 45 cm	324L	AGA page
2019¹	Top Ten	Fabricio Rufino de Souza	Brazil	Cores no Horizonte	120 × 60 × 45 cm	324L	AGA page
2017¹	1st	Roger Goh Yu Quan	Singapore	Breath Of The Wild	150 × 60 × 55 cm	495L	AGA page
2017¹	2nd	Luis Carlos Galarraga	Brazil	Summertime	120 × 60 × 45 cm	324L	AGA page
2017¹	3rd	LIN, TING-CHUAN	Taiwan	Uncharted	127 × 60 × 50 cm	381L	AGA page
2017¹	Larry Lampert Most Innovative Award	刘勇	China	Not recorded	120 × 60 × 50 cm	360L	AGA page
2015¹	1st	Fernando Boturao Francischelli	Brazil	Silent Awakening	120 × 60 × 45 cm	324L	AGA page
2015¹	2nd	Andre Luiz Longarco	Brazil	Faith	120 × 60 × 45 cm	324L	AGA page
2015¹	3rd	刘勇	China	神奇的世界	180 × 60 × 60 cm	648L	AGA page
2015¹	Top Ten	Narto	Indonesia	The Fallen Tree	120 × 60 × 45 cm	324L	AGA page
2013¹	1st	Sim Kian Hong	Malaysia	Destiny	150 × 60 × 60 cm	540L	AGA page
2013¹	2nd	lao chan fei	Macau	秋意	110 × 55 × 55 cm	332L	AGA page
2013¹	3rd	Michael G.W. Wong	China	Eruption	120 × 50 × 60 cm	360L	AGA page
2013¹	Larry Lampert Most Innovative Award	Wang Chao	China	天空	120 × 60 × 50 cm	360L	AGA page
2010¹	1st	Michael G.W. Wong	Hong Kong	Enchanted Forest	120 × 60 × 60 cm	432L	AGA page
2010¹	2nd	Pasquale Buonpane	Italy	The world before Columbus	160 × 52 × 60 cm	400L	AGA page
2010¹	3rd	Kam Wong	Hong Kong	Simba's Peak	150 × 50 × 55 cm	412L	AGA page
2010¹	Unranked	Konrad Szumilas	Poland	Helm's Deep	115 × 60 × 60 cm	414L	AGA page
2005¹	1st	Oliver Knott	Germany	In the shadow of the trees	450 × 120 × 100 cm	5400L	AGA page
2005¹	2nd	Eric Cheng	China	Chill Out Island	150 × 50 × 57 cm	428L	AGA page
2005¹	3rd	Dave Chow	China	Nature, Endure forever...	165 × 60 × 65 cm	640L	AGA page
2005¹	Honorable Mention	Aviel Livay	Israel	The promised Land	250 × 50 × 60 cm	750L	AGA page
2001¹	1st	Jacian Ho	Singapore	Not recorded	120 × 60 × 60 cm	432L	AGA page
2001¹	2nd	Steven T. Dixon	United States	Not recorded	183 × 61 × 74 cm	662L	AGA page
2001¹	3rd	Jeffery Senske	United States	Not recorded	183 × 76 × 76 cm	983L	AGA page
2001¹	Honorable Mention	Ilkka Kallio	United States	Not recorded	122 × 61 × 61 cm	450L	AGA page
2000¹	1st	Frode Roe	Norway	Not recorded	160 × 55 × 60 cm	530L	AGA page
2000¹	2nd	Frode Roe	Norway	Not recorded	160 × 55 × 60 cm	530L	AGA page
2000¹	3rd	Tolis Ketselidis	Greece	Not recorded	140 × 40 × 60 cm	336L	AGA page
2000¹	Honorable Mention	Ron Barter	Canada	Not recorded	152 × 46 × 61 cm	378L	AGA page

Practical

Ինչպես մասնակցել

Free, three entries, and prizes paid by PayPal.

If you’re entering from Yerevan, check how you can receive a prize before submitting. Registration is online. Prizes are paid by PayPal to the registered email address², which removes the postal problem that affects an IAPLC prize. PayPal availability in Armenia is the only real barrier and should be checked first.

Three aquascapes a year

Free to enter, with donations requested to pay for prizes. Maximum three aquascapes per person per year across all categories, and since 2023 only one aquascape per physical tank per year².

Measure from the tank floor

Dimensions are reported from the tank floor up to the water line, not to the top of the glass². That is why AGA volumes are lower than the number on the box.

The camera original is required

One to five photographs per aquascape, and the camera original of the main photograph must be uploaded. Judges never see it². It exists so the organisers can check the final image was not manipulated.

What editing is allowed

Colour correction, lens and distortion correction, rotation, brightness, shadow and highlight, contrast, sharpness and HDR. No borders, no watermarks, no collages, no people in the photograph².

What is banned

Cloning out flaws, compositing a better fish school from several frames, painting colour onto plants, blacking out the background to hide equipment².

The window

The second half of the year. For 2026 it ran from 1 August to 4 October⁵.

The 2020 disqualification sweep

In 2020 the AGA disqualified a group of entries for photo manipulation and named the techniques it had found: compositing several images to build a bigger or better looking school of fish, cloning background elements to hide flaws in the layout, and adding elements from a completely different photograph³. Disqualified entries are still displayed on the site, at the end of each category, rather than deleted¹.

That last decision is the interesting one. Keeping the disqualified work visible is the clearest public statement anywhere about what counts as cheating in aquascaping photography, and it is far more useful to a beginner than a rule written in the abstract. We did not read the organising committee's letter itself, only the FAQ that links to it³.

Image rights, AGA

This is the only contest where one party can say yes.

The AGA photo release is published in full and is unusually clear. Copyright stays with the aquascaper. The AGA receives an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive and royalty free licence to publish, reproduce, edit, crop and, crucially, sub-license the images⁸.

That sub-licence right is what makes the AGA different. At IAPLC the aquascaper and ADA both hold something, so two parties must agree. CIPS claims the copyright of its top hundred outright, so the aquascaper cannot grant it at all. The AGA can grant permission on its own authority, without chasing individual entrants⁸. It is a real route and it costs one email.

Until that email is answered we publish nothing. No image file has been copied or downloaded. Every picture-shaped box on this page is a CSS gradient with a declared aspect ratio, and every link to a layout goes to the AGA's own page.

Continue

Elsewhere in this section

AGA Aquascaping Contest showcase archive, 2000 to 2023. Aquatic Gardeners Association. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/. Accessed 8 September 2026. Individual year and entry pages are linked from every row above.
Rules and guidelines. AGA Aquascaping Contest, no date. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/guidelines.html. Accessed 8 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions. AGA Aquascaping Contest, no date. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/faq.html. Accessed 8 September 2026.
AGA showcase search index, aquascapes.json. Aquatic Gardeners Association. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/aquascapes.json. Accessed 8 September 2026. The machine readable index behind the showcase search page, covering every entry from 2000 to 2023.
AGA International Aquascaping Contest. 2026 contest site. https://agaiac.org/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
2025 results. AGA International Aquascaping Contest, 2025. https://agaiac.org/2025/results. Accessed 8 September 2026.
Past contests. AGA International Aquascaping Contest, no date. https://agaiac.org/past-contests. Accessed 8 September 2026.
Photo release agreement. AGAIAC, Inc., no date. https://agaiac.org/photo-release-agreement. Accessed 8 September 2026.
AGA International Aquascaping Contest 2024 results. AGAIAC, 2024. https://2024.agaiac.org/results/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
Aquatic Gardeners Association. Association home page, no date. https://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/. Accessed 8 September 2026.

Continue

AGA aquascaping contest: categories and judging

The fourth photograph on an AGA page is not the fourth placed layout.

A hobbyist body and a manufacturer, running the same idea two different ways.

The Aquatic Garden sheet judges a picture. The biotope sheet judges a fact.

Best of Show, 2000 to 2025.

Every AGA placing this site holds.

Free, three entries, and prizes paid by PayPal.

The 2020 disqualification sweep

This is the only contest where one party can say yes.

Elsewhere in this section

Where to go next.

IAPLC

The winners

Styles and history

Designing the contest