Luis Cardoso: aquascaping contest results

The record

What the contests wrote down.

The AGA ranks only the top three in each category. Entries placed fourth to tenth are shown together as a Top Ten group, sorted by tank volume rather than by result⁴. So counting down an AGA category page and calling the fourth photograph fourth place invents a number. Both records here carry no rank at all, and the code that builds these pages refuses to print one.

What the record does carry is unusually complete. Both layouts were built in a 120 by 60 by 45 centimetre tank at 323 litres¹². Both are lit by Life Aqua Prime Pro units, one with an Aquael Ultramax 2000 filter and the other with an Oase 850¹². Both plant lists run to sixteen or seventeen species, heavy on Rotala, Bucephalandra, Microsorum and small foreground carpets¹². Both are stocked with a single tetra species, green fire tetra in one and black neon tetra in the other¹².

Five judges wrote about the two entries between them¹², and the comments are more useful than a rank would be. Nigel Hoevenaar praised the bold wood work and the flow leading the eye to the vanishing point¹. Frederic Fuss called the design vivid, varied and built with great attention to detail². Juan Puchades Rufino, who would himself win Best of Show the following year, called the balance between healthy plants and hardscape the mark of a strong builder²³.