The record
What the contests wrote down.
The two entries here are a study in how much a builder can change in three years. The 2010 layout, "Enchanted Forest", is branchwood and grey zebra stones in a 432 litre tank, lit by eight 54 watt T5HO tubes for ten hours a day, stocked with Odessa barbs, cardinal tetras, Amano shrimp, two kinds of Neritina snail and Otocinclus2. The 2013 layout, "Eruption", is a rock arrangement built to read as a volcano, in a 360 litre tank lit by two 150 watt metal halide lamps and two more T5HO tubes, with red stem plants doing the work1.
Both tanks run the same unusual filtration idea: a canister filter plus an undergravel system driven by powerheads12. Undergravel filtration had largely gone out of fashion in planted tanks by 2010, and here it is on a first place layout.
The judges did not agree about the 2013 entry, which is the value of a contest that publishes comments. Dave Chow called the rock arrangement unique and the volcanic concept significant. Luca Galarraga praised the red plants and the first impression, then said plainly that the fish choice was the weak point and that a high swimming shoal would have been better1.
Eruption
AGA 2013 · 3rd1
- Placing
- Third Place
- Contest
- AGA
- Year
- 2013
- Category
- Aquatic Garden, >320L
- Entry number
- 380
- Country, as recorded
- China
- Tank
- 120 × 50 × 60 cm
- Volume
- 360L
- Lighting
- Aquamedic HQI 150 x 2, T5HO 54Watt x 2
- Filtration
- Tetra EX120 Canister, Undergravel System with Powerhead x 2 Sets
- Plants
- Micranthemum sp South Americarotala mexicana goiaslimnophila sp Vietnamelatine triandrataxiphyllum sp Spiky Moss
- Animals
- Paracheirodon axelrodiNeocaridina heteropoda var.
What the judges wrote, quoted and attributed
“This is a very interesting layout the rock arrangement is unique! The concept of volcano and lava come out after burst is very significant good job!”
“The use of red plants was very original and the layout has a strong first impression. The negative point is the fishes choice ... a high swimming shoal would be perfect! Congratulations!”
Enchanted Forest
AGA 2010 · 1st2
- Placing
- First Place
- Contest
- AGA
- Year
- 2010
- Category
- Aquatic Garden, >400L
- Entry number
- 66
- Country, as recorded
- Hong Kong
- Tank
- 120 × 60 × 60 cm
- Volume
- 432L
- Lighting
- T5HO 54watt x 8 (10 hours per day)
- Filtration
- Tetra EX120 Canister Filter x 2, Hagen PowerHead 30 Undergravel System x 2
- Hardscape and substrate
- Branchwood, Grey Zebra Stones
- Plants
- Glossostigma ElatinoideHygrophila sp from BelemBolbitis heudelotiiMicrosorum Pteropus sp "Needle Leaf"Taxiphyllum sp "Spiky Moss"
- Animals
- Odessa BarbCardinal TetraAmano ShrimpNeritina Ruby SnailNeritina Spiky SnailOtocinclus sp
What the judges wrote, quoted and attributed
“Beautiful plants and an over all pleasing look. I find the "floating" tree in the middle a bit distracting though.”
Image rights
No photograph on this page is ours, and none has been copied.
Every picture-shaped box above is a CSS gradient with a declared aspect ratio. The layouts themselves stay on the contests' own pages, and every entry above links to its own.
At the AGA, copyright stays with the aquascaper and the association holds an irrevocable, perpetual, sub-licensable licence5. Because it may sub-license, the AGA alone could grant us permission. That is the one obtainable route and it has not been asked for yet.
At IAPLC, the entrant keeps copyright and ADA holds a use right, so two parties would have to agree before any image could appear here.
At CIAC, CIPS states that the copyright of the top hundred entries belongs to CIPS and CFAA, so the aquascaper cannot grant it even if willing.
Until one of those is answered in writing, nothing is reproduced. Nobody reading this site should ever assume an image here belongs to us.
The other profiles
More pages, chosen the same way
Pages are built out of the 49 people whose official record carries enough detail to support one6. They are the ones with the most official detail recorded about them, so the choice is reproducible rather than a matter of taste.
- AGA 2013, Third Place. Eruption. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2013/show380.html. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- AGA 2010, First Place. Enchanted Forest. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2010/show66.html. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- AGA Aquascaping Contest showcase archive, 2000 to 2023. Aquatic Gardeners Association. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Frequently asked questions. AGA Aquascaping Contest, no date. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/faq.html. Accessed 8 September 2026. The statement that entries 4 to 10 are displayed in tank volume order rather than placing order.
- Photo release agreement. AGAIAC, Inc., no date. https://agaiac.org/photo-release-agreement. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Profile eligibility record. content/winners/profile-eligibility.json, generated 8 September 2026. This person carries 19 substantive fields beyond a name and a placing, above the threshold of four, and so is one of the 49 aquascapers for whom a page may be built.
Continue
Where to go next.
The winners
The other forty four people, and the full record of one hundred and seventeen placings.
The world competitions
The two contests behind the placings, and what each of them scores.
Styles and history
The schools these tanks are built in, with founders and dates.
IAPLC
The contest scoring sheet, where half the points go to whether a fish could really live there.