Welcome to the beautiful world of aquascaping! Guys, our next guest will not need an introduction, because he is probably the most successful aquascaper alive. He has more prizes than you can imagine. [Applause] Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Josh Sim! Welcome to Green Aqua! Thank you! First of all, I want to congratulate you for your Grand Prize winning for IAPLC this year. Thank you very much! You have here an IAPLC champion. Two times IAPLC champion and only two people in the world can say that. You and Mr. Fukada. So congratulations! Thank you! When I started to think about what kind of prizes you have, I couldn't even enumerate. So you have two first places and you have another three first places in another international contest. The IIAC and the Chinese Aquascaping contest. You've got two times No.4 and you've got one No.6. So you've got five times top seven rankings. I think nobody else can say that in the world. When I asked you what else you have, you said: "The rest are top 27". This video is going to be much longer than usual, because I'm sure that Josh will talk about so many interesting things, that this is gonna be an in-depth introduction to the world of contest tanks. And all those of you, who just want to improve your tanks a little bit more. You can listen to what he says and it's going to be fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Josh Sim! You see on the picture now, what kind of prizes he has. So good luck with the presentation! If you want to know something about contest tanks, this is your man! He knows how to do contest tanks! [Applause] Thank you very much! Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to be here today. I'm not here today to teach you anything. Because there is nothing to teach in aquascaping. Nothing is right, nothing is wrong. What I'm here today for, is just to share with you my experience. And also, to learn from your experience. To make friends and to enjoy this hobby. Not to teach. So this is the first thing that I want to say. I'm very glad to be here in Budapest, in Hungary. You know, I travel quite a lot. For my work, for aquascaping events. In the past, when I told my friends, that I'm going to Paris, Munich, Shanghai, Tokyo, my friends would say: "Yeah okay, so what?" Everybody goes to those kind of places. But this time, when I told my friends I'm going to Budapest, my friends said: "Oh Budapest!" That made me feel very proud. In the past, I've only heard about Budapest in spy movies, like James Bond. So to me, Budapest is something very beautiful and mysterious. But I have to tell you, that before today, or before I came, I knew very little about Hungary. To me, as an aquascaper, Hungary is Green Aqua and Green Aqua is Hungary. Hopefully after today, I will know more about Hungary and get to know many friends here. I'm not sure that among the audience today how many of you have not heard of me before today. Please, raise your hands. Don't worry, I will not kick you out from this shop, if you don't know me. Anybody, who haven't heard of me before? Before this, before today? Good, I'm very famous here. [Laughter] Never mind. I will just tell you a little but about myself, maybe something, that you will probably not know about me. First of all, I'm 46 years old. Yeah! [Balazs] Congratulations! [Josh] Thank you! Balazs is also 46, but he looks like my father. [Laughter] [Balazs] Because I'm not Asian! [Laughter] I come from a small fishing village, Kukup in the southern part of Malaysia. So my grandfather and a few of my uncles are actually fishermen. At the moment, I only have one wife and three kids. And I do not plan to increase this number. Wife and kids... Are enough. Aquascaping is not my full-time job. Yeah, I have a daily job. Aquascaping is just my hobby. In a normal day, I'm in the manufacturing line. I produce stationary, like pencils, pens, color pencils, highlighters and all this. So this is my job. I love cooking. Yeah, I'm the man chef in the house. Yeah, my kids love my cooking! The dish that they like the most is called McDonald's. When my wife is not around, I cook McDonald's for my kids. But joke aside, I really like cooking. I like cooking a lot, yeah! And I like gardening as well, but I like to grow things that I can eat, like vegetables foods, not flowers and all this, yeah? Actually, I like photography and painting. So as you can see, I'm quite an artistic kind of guy. Today, I'd like to share with you some works of my photography and painting, that I've done previously. My work is a little bit different, I would say a little bit dark. Mysterious, scary maybe. So it is not a normal kind of painting, or photography, that you are use to seeing. This is the kind of photography, that I like. And that is my wife. Heavily edited wife. This is a painting. This is a photograph. A photograph, I think I took this one in Paris. And this is also my wife, but my wife doesn't smoke. I just thought that she looks sexier with a cigarette in her hand. So... This is my favorite painting. I've had this as the wallpaper for my phone for like 5-6 years. Yeah! And that is myself. [Balazs] What kind of camera do you use? [Josh] A Canon 7D. Same camera that I use for capturing all my tanks. I also love dogs, I'm a dog person. And I love spicy food. Which is not true. Actually I love... I simply love food. Yeah?! Not only spicy food! Actually I told Balazs yesterday, that two months ago, I was 8 kilograms more, than today. And because I knew I had to come here and I know I'm on camera, I had to lose those 8 kilograms. Just for this occasion! [Applause] And I will probably gain back these 8 kilos before Christmas. I can promise you! [Audience] Before you leave, because our food is...
[Josh] Eeh... Exactly! I love Hungarian food! I tried yesterday already. Best! As a football fan, I support Manchester United. I know this sucks now. Yeah, but as once a devil, always a devil. So that was my private life. This is more aquascaping stuff. I've been in this hobby for 12 years. I belong to a small-small club, called Little Green Corner. Yeah, there are only five people in this club. There are five main members, but now we have hundreds of them, because after somebody became a champion, everybody wanted to join this club. I think water change is one of the more important things in this hobby. For my contest tanks, I do water changes three times a week. Yes! 20-30%. Three times a week. I believe that if you do water changes that often, it can minimize a lot of problems. Algae, plants' health. I've been following this regime, this schedule for like 4-5 years and I've never had algae problems in my tanks. Yeah, so I think water change is very-very important. [Balazs] How long does it take for you to do a water change? My tank is 5 feet, 150-120. So one water change for one tank is probably 15-20 minutes. Because I don't know, I'm not only sucking out, siphoning out the water, I'm also cleaning all that dirt. So it takes about 20 minutes. I love moss. I think this is one of the most important plants in this hobby. Because it is so versatile, you can use it anywhere in the tank. In the front, in the middle, in the back. Bottom, middle, top. Everywhere you can use this plant! More importantly, you basically cannot kill moss. They grow anywhere, so I think this is a very important plant in our hobby. I have six tanks in my house. My wife is not impressed about this number, but... [Laughter] Yeah... But out of these six tanks, only two tanks are for contests. And this is my contest tank, that I mentioned. 5ft x 2ft x 2ft, which is 150x60x60 centimeters. And 120x60x60 centimeters. So these are the only two contest tanks that I have. The other four tanks are mainly for plants. Like farms, I call them farm tanks. Tank shooting means taking the final photo of the tank. To me personally, I think that this is the most stressful thing about this hobby. Because you know, you work for 4-5-6 months and whether you succeed or not, it all comes down to this single moment, when you click the shutter. Whether you are good, or you're bad, that one click decides on your entire years of hardships. So for me, when I have to shoot my tank, I'm very nervous. I shoot my tank all by myself, in one person. Including chasing the fish, setting up and blowing the hairdrier... Everything, in one person I do it myself. I always do it at the middle of the night. Not middle of the night, but when everybody is asleep. Then I'm alone in the house and I shoot this tank for maybe 3-4 hours, only one tank. Normally like 200-300 photos for one tank is common. Sometimes 600, if I do it two times. These are the Championships that I won so far. 2 for IAPLC, 2 for IIAC, 2 for AGA and 1 for CIAC China. Now I'd like to show you some of my tanks that I've done before. Of course I will not show you my every tank, I'll just pick out some... Just to share them with you. From 2008. This is my very first tank. You can laugh. No problem. Everybody laughs at this.
[Balazs] It's better than mine. [Balazs] I showed them in our videos - my tanks - before. [Josh] I'm very proud. I'd like to show you this tank every time. To my friends or to some beginners. Because I want to tell them that if I started with this tank, a tank like this, and I can achieve my level now... All of you can do the same. I'm sure all of you started with a better tank than this one. So if I started with something like this. You can do better than me. I like to always encourage people: "Don't give up!" No matter how - let's say - how "not nice" your tank are now. Just look at my tank! This is how I started my hobby. So be proud of yourselves and keep trying. 2009. This is my tank from 2009. It won #4 at IAPLC that year. It was my first time in participating at IAPLC. I won #4. I'm the first person in the world that used straight wood. In aquascaping. You can go and check. Before 2009 nobody used straight wood before. I'm the first person. This is also message: Don't be afraid of using new stuff! When I told my friends I'm gonna use this thing, they were laughing at me. They said: you can go and buy a broom. A stick. Yeah! But I got #4. This is the message that I want to tell you: Be bold! You know, don't be afraid to try new stuff. 2010... I made this tank after my trip to Austria for skiing. 2011... 2012... 13... 14... 15. 16. 2017 is a very special year for me. In this year I won 3 World Championships. In the same year. Using the same concept. Different tanks, same concept. Same fish. It took me 11 months to finish these three tanks. This is the tank that I won the World Championship in China. In Taiwan... In Japan. 2018. This tank also won #1 in Taiwan. And this is my ADA tank from last year. This year I made three tanks. Two tanks for Taiwan and one tank for Japan. This tank is for Taiwan. The IIAC from this year. It got #4. And this... Got #2 in the same contest. [Balazs] So actually, guys, you have to know that this is aired after the [IAPLC] Ceremony. So right now you're gonna see his 2019 Award Winning tank! Here it is! [Applause, ovation] [Applause] Our topic for today. For this workshop... Initially, when I came here, I had in mind that I want to do this. I wanted to give... To share some tips on international competitions. How to do well in international competitions. But after that I realized that not everyone is going for international competitions. Some of you might just want to do a beautiful tank at home. And to enjoy it, to relax. It doesn't matter! Both are good. Not everyone is a contest guy like me. Some of you would just like to have a nice tank at home. So the second topic for today could be also the "Tips for Creating a Good Layout'. It's the same. You can use the same tips for contest, or you can use the same tips just to create a nice tank. Before that, I'd like to share with you the two extreme styles in aquascaping. This is important, because I belong to one of these styles. If I want to share with you my tips, my tips would be more related to that style. So if you ask the people from the other style they may not agree with what I'm saying. So there are two extreme ends. To aquascaping. I call them Zen and Wild. Of course there are some in between as well. But what I'm trying to talk about now are the two extremes. Very very extreme styles. The Zen style Aquascaping is very relaxing. Very calm. Peaceful. Simple. Simplicity. Soothing. So when you look at a Zen kinda' scape you feel very relaxed. Your mind is very calm. You're very peaceful, you enjoy it. So this is the Zen style of Aquascaping. The Wild Aquascaping Style will give you a very high impact. It make you feel like being very dangerous. Like something may fall down or something like that. Melancholy means very edgy. It will make you feel not very comfortable. You'll feel like... You'll feel a bit scared. Dark, mysterious. These are the two extreme styles of Aquascaping. I'd like to show you some information about these two styles. First Zen. Fundamental skill is very important. Meaning you'll need to really know the basics. To do a Zen layout well. If you do not know the basics... It will be difficult to do it. Because in the Zen Aquascaping the weaknesses are easily exposed. Because it is very simple. When you do something very simple your weakness shows. So you need very very good fundamental skills to do a Zen style Aquascape well. Yeah? Safe but hard to breakthrough. It means... This is for contest related topics. If they see you're doing something Zen you will not get very terrible ranking. But it is so very difficult to achieve very very high rankings. This is what I meant by safe but difficult to breakthrough. Because it is... It won't go too wrong. But if you want to get very good rankings, it is very difficult. Difficult to understand and difficult to master. And it depends on experience and skill. Meaning it takes a lot of time to master this Zen Style of Aquascaping. Now let's look at the Wild... Basic skill is not crucial. I'm not saying that it is not important. It is not as demanding in this style. Meaning - even if your basic skill is not that good, if you are doing a Wild Style, maybe you can get on with it. Because the weakness can be hidden. When you are doing something wild and you make some mistakes people will not see your mistakes. Because the people's attention will be focused on the wild sight. They don't see the small mistake. For the Zen - because it is very simple - people will see the small mistakes. So this is the difference. Big risk, big reward. If you are doing something Wild You can get a ranking in the thousands. And if you hit the right spot it will immediately bring you to the top. So this is the difference. It depends a lot on inspiration and creativity. It means: idea. For the Wild Style the idea is very important. If you had a good idea you can do it. You do not need experience or skill. I'm the perfect example. I have to tell you, that I'm still learning, but I'm doing more of this side. That is why my results are still okay, even though I still make mistakes. Yeah?! I would like to show you now some people, who belong to this group and that group. For the Zen group, they are the Masters of Zen. I'm not sure, I hope that you know some of them. Masashi Ono, Japan, Ngo Truong Thin from Vietnam. He is an IAPLC champion. Cliff Hui from Hong Kong. Handa San is the last year's IAPLC champion, from Japan. And the Brazilians. So they are more or less the Zen representatives. The Wild side, Fukada, Wang Chao from China. Long from Vietnam, Wolinski from France and myself. And if I look at Green Aqua, okay, Balazs is also probably on the wild side. Viktor is probably this side. So this is just to give you a picture what kind of two extremes styles are there in aquascaping. So today, the tips I'm gonna share with you are more on the Wild side. If you want this, the Zen side, you'll get this guy to come. Yeah! [Laughter] Okay, quiz time! Who is the most handsome aquascaper in the world? Josh Sim! Good answer, great! Many people call me Aquascaping Master. Just because I won some contests and all this, people started to call me Aquascaping Master. Basically before 2017, nobody called me Aquascaping Master. It was in 2017 that I won a few awards, a few World Championships, people started calling me Aquascaping Master. To me, I can't become a master from one year to another year. 2016, I'm not an Aquascaping Master. 2017, I suddenly become an Aquascaping Master. Why? I don't think this is true. So I want to tell you that I'm not an Aquascaping Master. Balazs doesn't like this, I know. [Josh] I know you'll edit it out, but...
[Balazs] I don't like it at all. I actually told you before, that I thought of you as an Aquascaping Master even before you got the prize. Yeah, that... Viktor here will be testifying for that. Because actually Viktor also heard me say that. Becuase I belong to the wild side, you don't see my mistakes. But I know I make mistakes. And I think Aquascaping Masters don't make so many mistakes. So what I'm gonna tell you today is that I'm just someone, who knows a little bit about contests. I'm a very competitive guy. I do my tanks with a very clear mind, for those that I want to go to a contest with. So winning all these contests won't make me a Master. It will only make me an Aquascaping Contest Master. That, maybe, yes. I'm a very competitive guy. So I started this hobby because I wanted to go to contests. Who do you consider an Aquascaping Master? You are going to put me in a lot of trouble with this question. [Laughter] Well, there are many. You've seen somebody, who set up that tank, who was here a few weeks, few months ago... There are many! Many Japanese Masters. But I don't want to mention who and who, because those people that I don't mention, they are going to hate me - forever. Now today, I'm going to share with you nine useful techniques for creating a good layout. Whether you're going for a contest or not - it doesn't matter. The first one is very very important: Theme. Theme is actually something that tells people what you do in your tank. Something, that represents the identity of your tank. Meaning that if you do something, people see it and they immediately know what you are doing. That is a theme. A theme can be many things. It can be a forest, river, waterfall, mountain range, cliff, canyon, valley, trees, blah blah... Dutch, Iwagumi... Anything can be your theme! But it must be very clear. And why is the theme important, why? Because for viewers or judges, if they understand what you are doing, they'll like it, they can appreciate it. If we see something that we don't understand, we don't like it. But if you see something that you understand, you will like it. So this is why a theme is very-very important. You always have to treat the viewers or the judges, as normal people. We are not making something for experts. You have to treat everybody as a kid, who can appreciate your tanks. Not only an expert will appreciate a good tank. You need to make the tank in a way, so that even kids can understand. And like it. And for that, a theme will help. Because everybody will understand if your theme is clear. This is important, because you don't have any chances, to explain to the judges or the viewer, what you are doing. You have zero chance. What you judges see is your photo. And that is the only thing they see. You don't get the chance to explain to the judges, I'm doing this, because of that, I'm doing that because of that... No! You have zero chance to do that. So what you have is a photo. Back in Malaysia, I have many new - let's say - beginner friends, who show me their photo and then start to explain to me "I'm doing this one, because I want to do that, then this color, because I want to do that." And deep down in my mind, I think that if you have to start explaining your work to me, you failed. You don't have the chance to explain. Whatever you have in that photo, only that counts. So that is why a theme is important. For example if I show this sbstract drawing to 100 people on the street, maybe three, maybe five people will say "Yeah, this is nice, I like it." The rest of the 100 people, they won't understand it. But if I show this photo to 100 people on the street, maybe 80 people will say yeah, I like it. Because this is easy to understand. People know that this is a forest. So this is a no-theme, an abstract. This is with a theme. So you have to do something, that people can easily understand, what you are doing. Same thing, yeah. If I show these two paintings of ladies to anyone, most of us will say this is nicer. That is also nice. Because we know, that a lady normally looks like that. And a lady doesn't look like that. But it doesn't mean that this is a bad painting. It could be worth 100 million Euros. This could be worth 20 dollars. It doesn't mean that this is bad. This is good! But if you show all these paintings to normal people, many will think this is a better drawing. So make sure your theme is easily understandable. You know, if you look at the social media today, Facebook, Instagram, whatever, or whatever forum... Many people will say: "I do forest tanks". Or: "I do mountain tanks", whatever. So when people say "I do forest tanks", they will show a photo like this. This is a forest tank. This is a forest tank. Or this is a forest. This is not a forest, These are not forests. Because- yeah - if he has a theme... And is the theme a forest? How can we know that this is a forest? I doubt a person telling me that he's doing a forest. And even if he tells me: "I'm doing a forest", I'll also not understand why this is a forest. So these are not forests. These are forests! So if you do a tank like this, you don't have to tell people you're doing forest! One thing though is to know we're doing a forest. So this is an important thing about it. Your theme must be easily understandable. So how to create a good layout with a theme? How to do it, this is important. And to answer this question, I need a volunteer - to demonstrate. Today, you have a very important task! You need too demonstrate to the audience how to create a good theme. Okay? Okay. And I have theme for you, that you need to create for us. Okay. This is the theme: I want you to use Lego, to build a big house, with a beautiful garden, flowers and trees in the garden, butterflies flying around, two dogs chasing the butterfly, two sport cars in the car porch and a swimming pool with a girls in bikinis. Ready? You do not need a mic now. You have four pieces of Lego. Please use these four pieces of Lego, to create this theme for us. You can start now. [Laughter] Please use your imagination, try to do all these six things with these four pieces of Lego. Please. You can start now. Done? Okay! Great! Ladies and gentlemen, this is a big house, with beautiful gardens, flowers and butterflies and dogs - and where are the bikini girls? Behind. Behind, okay! He is... You see, he is explaining himself to me now! He is explaining to me, that the bikini girls are behind. But if I give it to a judge, can you see girls in bikinis here? You can't see! Yeah, so... But anyway, this is a good demonstration. And for your effort, I have a small present for you as well. - For you, Congo! Thank you for your effort!
- Thank you! Yeah, thank you! So Ladies and Gentlemen, using four pieces of Lego, to create this theme - you know by now - it is impossible. You cannot create anything nice with a few pieces of Lego. To create the theme that we were trying to do just now, you'll need a full set of Lego! That is how you create a theme. With a few pieces of Lego, you can't even create a big house. Not to mention girls in bikinis. So just remember: when you want to create a theme, you should think about Lego. This is a hardscape that I created in 2016. And to create this hardscape, I used 50 pieces of wood, more than 50 pieces of wood and more than 100 pieces of rock. This is not even with planting or anything, but I hope that you already understand what I try to do here. This, the theme is already very clear! Just by looking at the hardscape! Because I have enough stuff with me to create it. There are lots of - let's say - some beginners, or somebody else who goes to an aquascaping shop. And he just buys 5 pieces of rock, he goes home, he needs to use these 5 pieces of rock, to create something. So no matter what, you'll need to use those 5 pieces of rock that you bought! You don't have any choices. Or you buy 2 pieces of wood and then you put them in. You are expecting these two pieces of wood, to create a theme that you want. Impossible. Unless you are very, very, very lucky. But how many people can be so lucky? They go to a shop, pick up something, put it in, that is exactly what you want! Not possible! So to create a theme, you really need a lot of material to choose from. And many people complain, saying that I cannot find the wood that I want. Because you have an image in your mind, that you want to create a wood like this. And you go to a shop, A shop, B shop, C... You cannot find a piece of wood. I can tell you, you will never find it anywhere. You need to create it yourself. Get a few pieces of wood, and try to combine it, like Lego. If you go to a shop, a Lego shop... You will never find one piece of Lego, that has everything that you want. You'll have to buy a set and then you can put it together. [Balazs] Can you tell me in the meantime, what kind of wood and what kind of rocks did you use there? The rocks, I collected them from some valleys, rivers in Malaysia. I use this kind of rock only for - let's say - a scape in which the rock is not the main focus point. Because this kind of rock... It doesn't have a very unique texture. It is good for support. But it cannot be the main piece. Like you see... Those rocks in the tank with the main piece... All have very beautiful textures and all that. These rocks are good for supporting. I collected them from some wild river. Or some waterfall, back in Malaysia. This wood, we call it... - I don't know the actual name -, we call it Thai Driftwood. From Thailand. It's very fine! Very fragile, you can break it easily. But once you put it in, once it's inside the water, they won't break. But if - let's say - you take it out of the water, they'll break easily. It is some mixture of Iron wood and the Red moor wood. Yeah! [Balazs] Would you be afraid, that the small Thai wood would melt? No, they won't melt! They will break only, they won't melt! They are really sturdy branches, but they are very thin. So sometimes during maintenance they can break. So from this, to this. The theme is clear. By one look, you'll know exactly what I want to do. I don't need to explain to you, what I want to do. You know it. And to create this, you'll really need a lot of material to do it. Yeah! And some will ask me: How about this? This is also my tank. Basically people see one piece of wood, two pieces, three pieces, maybe four pieces. Only four pieces of wood! But I wanna tell you, it's not that easy! As I told you just now, to create this piece, I already needed some 20 pieces. You can never go to an aquarium shop and say you want to find a piece of wood like this. Good luck! You will never find it. Technique number two: depth. Everybody knows that. But not many people can do it well. Why? I will show you. First of all, why is depth so important? Because I think ... First of all, it makes your layout look big. To look deep! People go "wow"! If your tank has very good depth, it is very easy to impress viewers. Because to me, depth is... How do I call it? It is something very easy to see. You do not need to be an expert, to see a tank, that has a good depth. It's very easy to let people understand what is depth. I haven't come across anybody, who didn't like a tank with good depth. Whenever you see a tank, the very first thing that you notice probably, is depth. What you see is "Wow, this tank is very deep!" Very first thing that comes to your mind is always depth. So it is something very easy to impress the viewer with. And the judges. And how to create depth? Endpoint! Do you know it? Everybody knows the Endpoint, right? The vanishing point. This is an Endpoint, for example. A point that is demonstrating the farthest end of your tank. High background - everybody knows this. If you want to have good depth, your background has to be high. You place something big in the front, something small in the back. These tree things, everybody does them. But that is not the important thing. Many people forget the last thing, which - to me - is the most important thing: perspective. To create good depth, you need perspective. And what is perspective? You know, when I was young, small, I drew houses like this. This has no perspective. And when I got older, I drew houses like this. This is perspective. You need to have this perspective. This perspective. Without this perspective, you tank will not look deep. Perspective is very important. Okay? Let's look at the Congo tank from 2017. I have my end point here. High background? This tank has a very high background. Like maybe 30 centimeters high - the background. Front big? Back small? Yes. I used smaller wood in the back. Bigger wood in front. How about perspective? You see this perspective. This perspective and this perspective. So I'm creating this kind of perspective, to demonstrate that the tank has some depth. Without this perspective, even though you have the first three, the depth will not be good enough. Let's look at Fukada's tank! Endpoint, he has a very beautiful Endpoint here. Very beautiful! High background. Actually this tank doesn't have a high background. Front big, back small, yes. You have small things in the back, big things in the front. But I want you to look at his perspective! Crazy perspective! You see this, this, this, this and this. He's creating so many perspectives and makes the tank so, so deep. Even though he doesn't have a high background. So perspective is everything, when you want to create depth. You want to show this kind of... this kind of perspective. Just look at how Fukada demonstrated the forced perspective. Crazy perspective! I think only a true master can do this, yeah! Also his tank, you see! End point, he has an end point. High background, high background. I also saw this tank personally, in his house. It has very beautiful, high background. Front big, back small? Yes! He used very small wood in the back and big wood in front. And perspective? Yes, he has a good perspective. [Balazs] Can you tell me the size of this tank? 150 cm. The previous one was 120 cm. Fukada has two tanks, 120 cm and 150 cm. Same as mines, I also have the same sizes. [Balazs] Can you talk a little bit about the size of the tank, depth-wise? And why is it important, to have deep tanks? My tanks is normally around 100 centimeters. 120 cm or 150 cm. 60 cm, or some tanks are 50 cm high. And the depth is always 60 centimeters. Always 60! Because it is needed to create that kind of depth and layers. The deeper it is, the more room you have. More space to work with! Well of course, you need to have enough ideas to fill the tank. Number 3: Focal point. This one, I also think everyone will know. I just want to just go through. The focal point is at the basis of all. Why? Because it helps to catch the viewers' attention. And it guides the viewers' eyes. You have to know this: the judges at aquascaping contests... They have hundreds of thousands of photos, to look at. Right? If your tank doesn't have anything, that catches their eyes, they will just flip it and they'll forget it. So to create a focal point, you need something big and something special, like the tank, that Dave did. The rock is very big, very special. That is a focal point. You need something very bright, or something very dark. Brightness and darkness can both be focal points. The Endpoint can also be the focal point. And always put the focal point at the Golden Ratio. To 2/3 in the middle. Golden Ratio - I think everybody would know what it is. For example, in this tank, this is the focal point. I used a very, very big and dark wood, to create a focal point. The first thing you see is this thing. And from here the viewers will first stop their gaze, or their attention - on this wood. And slowly - starting from this wood - they will discover the other things. Yeah! This is another extreme example. I used a very bright end point, as my focal point. So when you observe this tank, the first thing you'll see is this thing. A tank without focal point, can it be good? Yes, it can. I'll give you an example, a very good example. I didn't find many examples in this case, but this tank is a fantastic example from Wolinski. I do not know where is the focal point. No focal point, but... How many people can do a tank like this? Where you do not need a focal point, but the moment you see it, you cannot take your eyes off of it? [Balazs] The lack of the focal point in this tank was not created by Gregoire, but it was created by Éva Kedves, a Hungarian concept artist, because actually what Gregoire did, is that he took the image and took that, as a consideration. A rare example. How many people can be Wolinski? Not many people can be him, so... I want to say that it's not necessary to have a focal point. But unless you can do something like that... Otherwise you'll need a focal point. I want to show you some examples of the tanks, that do not have a clear focal point. Something like this. A beautiful tank, but where is the focal point? I do not know. Because at the back, there are a lot of white areas. I do not see a very clear focal point in this tank. Again, very beautiful tank! But where is the focal point? When you look at a tank like this, yeah, very nice, but after a while you forget about it. Because there is nothing, that can register in your mind about this tank. Very nice! I'm not saying... This is a very nice tank, but... Very soon, you'll forget about this tank. because there is nothing for you, to focus on. Same thing. No focal point to me. Beautiful tank, but no focal point! Same thing. So remember, create something with a very clear focal point. To catch the attention of the viewer, of the judges. We arrived to technique Number 4. Layers! I'll have to say, this is a little bit more difficult topic to explain. I'll try my best. Layers help to create depth. They make your tank look richer in content. And they create a 3D effect. This is something - I will say - that is very, very important in today's aquascaping. If you want to go for contests, your tank needs to look 3D. I will explain to you how. So to create layers, first of all, we don't arrange everything in a straight line, in one dimension - straight. You don't put in your wood like this. You know, in a straight line. This will not give you layers. You need to do something in the back, something in the front and... Don't use the same size for everything! The rocks have to be big and small. The wood has to be chunky, thin. And use different colors, different materials, to create layers. Many people who do tanks - they only see one dimension. I think today, if you are really going to do well, if you want to do well in contests, you need to do it in three dimensions. This has one dimension. Many people, when they do their tanks, they draw this on their tanks. And they start to put in the hardscape. To me, this is one-dimensional. You only see your tank as one piece of paper, like this. One-dimensional. Yeah, it shows my name! The most handsome aquascaper, yeah! This is not good enough. If you want to do 3D, you need to imagine your tank this way. I don't know how many of you, when you set up your tanks, have this cube in your minds. You need to, if you want to do 3D. So we are not only doing something on this level. You need to consider the second level, the third level and maybe the fourth, fifth level. You need to have this in your mind: your tank is not only a piece of paper, but it's a cube! Do something in front! And then at the back, something else, at the back, something else. Three dimensional. This tank, I want to show you the layers in this tank. The first layer is the sand. Layer No.2 to me is the two pieces of wood. These two pieces of wood are one layer. They are in the same dimension. So this is the second after the sand. This is the second layer. So you can feel that this sand and these woods, they are two different dimensions. They are not together. They are two different dimensions. The third layer is the empty area behind these two big pieces of wood. This empty area. This empty area, you also can feel that it is different from these two pieces of wood. It is behind the two pieces of wood. The fourth layer is all the plants here. You can also feel that these plants are behind this area. Very clearly, you can know it. The fifth layer is the end point. So this tank has five layers. I think a good tank needs to have at least five layers. Let's look at Fukada's tank! The first layer is of course the sand - again. The second layer is the higher root, or the structure behind the sand. You can see that this layer and this layer are at a different height. Third layer is these two big things. This one and this one, yeah! The fourth layer, to me, this is the most beautiful layer of this layout. Actually, when you see this tank in real life, this area is sank down. It creates a very nice illusion, that this tank is very deep. Yeah! It's a very beautiful layout, I like this layout very much! And then, there is one layer, the wood at the back. And one more layer, the empty end point here. So six layers. I don't see six layers many times. Fukada can do it. Now I want to show you an example of a tank, that doesn't have enough layers. This again, it's a beautiful tank. But to me, the layers are not enough. How many layers do you see? The sand is one layer. But unfortunately, everything else... This... Everything else is in one layer. Because they are in the same dimension. All this, all this thing! You don't see anything in front, you don't see anything in the back. It's all in one dimension. And then you have the endpoint there, three layers. Three layers are very easy to do, anybody can do three layers. But it's not enough in today's aquascaping. Four is already good enough. Five will be the best. Six is impossible, except for Fukada. Shadows! I don't know, how many of you think of this, when you set up your tank. Do you have shadow in your mind? I'll tell you a story. In 2016, I visited Fukada's house. That year, he won his second IAPLC. He won for the first time in 2015. In 2016, he won for a second time in row. So in that year, I visited his house. I asked him, "What is your secret in winning at IAPLC?" He only gave my one word. "Shadow". Then I was like: "what shadow"? And now I understand. Shadow is very, very important. So, let's see. Shadows help you to create a moody kind of feel, mysterious, to give your tank power and they help you to create fear. Shadow, that stuff is fear. And melancholy. I mean you give people an uneasy feeling. And this is exactly how the wild style people would tell you their story, this is important. You can go and see Fukada's tanks, past tanks. He has all those elements. Fukada's tanks never give you a very peaceful feeling. When you look at Fukada's tank, it's dark. Dangerous, edgy, it makes you feel uneasy. And that is exactly the thing, that has won him the IAPLC championship two times. Many people out there want to create a tank, that looks comfortable. Looks peaceful. Yeah, but that is not going to do it. I wouldn't say not... But it's very difficult, to get you to top prizes. As I say, you need to be very, very good! If you're creating something very comfortable, you need to be very good. Otherwise people don't look at it. Fukada and now actually me too, I would say I'm being influenced by him. My style is more or less this. I want to create this element in my tank. So to create a shadow, actually it's very, very simple. Everybody knows, that you need an object, that blocks light. This is your light. This is your object. And this part is where the light cannot get to, you get shadow. So very simple! Imagine this is your wood or your rock. How to create shadows? You put it in like this. Don't place everything straight. It's not going to have a shadow, if you put it in like this. Put it in like this! This is your shadow. So this has to be implemented when you set up your tank. It is too late to do that after the water is in. Or you can create shadows by using plants. If you have something straight, you put plants here. Maybe Bolbitis, or some ferns. Here and this part will be dark. If you don't do it during the setup, then you'll say "Sht, where is my shadow?" So you put some plants on top here. At the bottom - you can get shadow. But I think it's a very hard thing. Not many people will have shadow on their minds, when they first create a tank. But learn from Master Fukada! He has shadows and only shadows on his mind. I'll tell you. Only shadow is in his mind. So when you create a hardscape with wood, rocks... First have the shadow in your mind. Try to think like: "how do I want to create shadow?" Okay, put in something like this, not like this. Of course, you cannot do everything like this, otherwise your tank is black. So you need to know what kind of shadow is good and how much shadow is needed. Exactly my question. How much shadow is required? In a tank, how many percents of shadow is good shadow? Personally I feel like 30-60%. I know it sounds crazy! Imagine, 30-60% of your tank is dark. But that is exactly how the top aquascapers are doing it. I'll show you an example. This tank, how many percents of shadow are there? I roughly estimated 30-40% of shadow. This is a tank from Wang Chao, China. You see the shadow that we have? 40-50% of this tank is in shadow. All these are shadows, you see. I did not circle it, because all these are shadows. 40-50%! I call him "the Grand Master of Shadow". Fukada's tank. In this tank 50-60% is shadow. All these are shadow! But you don't feel that it is very dark. This tank will give you a kind of feeling that it is unique. To me. This is Fukada's best tank. Personally, I feel, it is Fukada's best tank. A very unique feel. And he has 50-60% of this tank in shadow. A lot of people think that a tank must be bright, must be, you know... I think that that kind of thinking is outdated. Your tank must have enough shadow. To create a kind of impact. Of course, I'm speaking from the perspective of the Wild School. The Zen School will not think this way. Yeah? See? This Indonesian tank from my friend... 50-60% of the tank is in shadow. But it looks very impressive! But one thing you'll have to remember. When you create shadows, don't make them totally dark. A totally dark shadow is not a good shadow. When you create shadow you want people to see a little bit inside the shadow. Show a little bit of detail in the shadow. Don't make it totally dark. If a shadow is totally dark... Yes, OK. But it is not a very good shadow. In these tanks... All the shadows inside them have details. Of course - now that I projected it on a slide you can not see too much detail. But all these have details insied them. All these shadows have details inside them. Fukada's tank... All this. You can see a little bit of stuff inside. Some roots, fish, some plants. These shadows are never totally dark. You want to see a little bit of detail inside a shadow. I want to show you now some examples of layouts that do not have enough shadow. This tank. To me, these are not shadows. It does not give me areas that are dark or areas that are bright. Not enough shadow. A tank like this... Of course - actually now that I projected it out everything looks very dark. But if you see it on your laptop or in real life... These are not shadows. And as I told you just now, shadow does not mean darkness. This tank is too dark. Shadow doesn't mean darkness. We need good shadow and good brightness to complete each other. A good tank must have very clear shadows and very clear bright areas. Again, I'll show you Fukada's tank. This tank has 60-70% of shadow. You can imagine that all these are shadows. All these big areas are shadows. Close to 70% is in shadow. And it has very beautiful bright areas. That is what I meant by: "You need good brightness and good shadow to complement each other." [Audience] Do you consider the position of lighting before you start working on the hardscape? Yes. The brigtness - you mean. [Audience] Yes, I mean... Because of the shadows... You can not just think of the light coming from one direction. Maybe... When you position it. The first... It's a very good question he's asking... Yes, now I see. When I set up a hardscape I already consider how to create a shadow. But how about the brightness? Yes, it is in my initial plan. The first thing that comes to my mind is the Endpoint. The Endpoint is always the main source of my brightness. If you had an Endpoint, the Endpoint must be bright enough to complement the shadows. So the first thing I have in mind is: "where is my Endpoint?" I already plan my Endpoint. Normally, a few years ago I would have taken a piece of paper, and I would stick it at the back. This is my Endpoint. Because when an aquascaper would set up... he would get too excited and so pumped up... And he would do everything, and then: "hey, where's my Endpoint?" It's gone. You cover everything. So let's say, that a few years back I would have taken a piece of paper and stuck it at the back. Okey, for example, this tank - this is my Endpoint. I stick the paper here. I want to make sure, that whatever I do, I don't want to cover this area. So that is how I plan my brightness. Because Endpoint is always bright. You can not have a dark Endpoint. After the tank is done, and you see that your shadow is not enough do it with plants. [Audience] Do you position the light in a special direction just to highlight?... No! [Audience] ... the affected area? My light is always from straight up. I do not tilt my light. In a special position. But, during the final photoshoot, yes! I use the studio lights. I don't know what is the name... The professional studio light that you see when you go to a studio. To take photos... All these big lights. I use that to shoot my tanks. Sometimes, if I want to see certain areas, to darken them. I use some kind of coverage on the top. Normally it happens in this corner and this corner. You can see: this corner and this corner are mostly dark. Because these two corners are the closest things to the viewers - normally. And the thing that is the closest to you is normally looking dark. The things that are really far are normally bright. Sometimes it happens, that after I shoot my photos I see on my computer - this area and this area is too bright. Because of the studio light - it's too strong. So what I do is I cover something. Whatever you can use... Maybe some... And I don't want it to be totally dark as well. So sometimes I use mesh. Some mesh, like... Stockings. Ladies' stockings or some net. Or something that is... Let's say a garbage bag. A plastic that is of black color but the light can still penetrate it a little bit. You have to do trial and error. No fixed formula. If you want to have certain dark spots... The cover will give you a little bit of darkness. So this is something that we do... As a second thought. Meaning there's nothing you can do on your tank before. But during the photoshoot, you can have these kinds of small tricks. To cover to create some dark spots. But normally, you can't do it in the center. Normally I do it in this and this corner. Let's go to the 6th tip, or 6th technique. Space! The first thing that I want to say about space is that you have to make use of every inch of your tank. Every inch! Every inch means: from left to right. From front to back. From bottom to top. Every inch of your tank - you need to use it. I very often see tanks - or contest tanks.... Photos... People only use half of the tank. The top half is empty. When you sumbit a photo, you want to give the gudges or the viewer as much thing to see as possible. You don't leave a tank empty. Make use of every inch of your tank, every inch - make use of it. Even if there're some areas that you want to leave empty, You purposfully want to leave them empty. Which is fine. For example - this area - you want it to be empty. This is OK. Because you plan it to be empty. But you don't do it like... You don't leave it empty because you don't know how to do it, this is not OK. Use every inch of your tank. And make good use of the reflections. Two types of reflections. Left and right reflections. And top reflection. The water surface reflection. Many people do not use the water surface reflection. Because they have all their layout at the bottom. And when your layouts are at the bottom - the top reflection will be empty. If you go and see those top ranking tanks... The top reflections are all full of stuff. Yeah? You don't have to build your stuff all the way to the water surface. It's not needed. Just remember: when you take the photo, reduce the water level. Many people think: "Can I reduce the water level? Am I cheating?" No, you are not cheating! Just reduce the water level. For example in this tank. If you'd take the photo now, you can see this part is empty. To me, this tank is nice, but if you want to go for a contest photo reduce the water level until you can see the top reflection. Of course, you don't have to do that, but you can do that. That is why I say: make good use of refleciton. Left and right, and top. [Balazs] I wanted to ask you about the reflection that you are using in this year's contest tank. I know that you are using the reflection in very creative ways. On both sides. And I actually like the way that you have like a separate tank on both the left and the right side. Like you have three tanks in one picture. How did you do that, and did you do that on purpose? Obviously he did. Yes and no. Left and right reflections - there are two ways to do it. One way is that you want to show the people a continuation. You want to let people have an illusion that your tank longer than this. Longer than this. For example your tank is this big. But with the left and right reflection you want to show the viewers or the judges, that your tank is actually longer. This is a very useful technique. Because a good tank always looks bigger on photo than the actual one. If you have a 2 ft tank and you show it to people, they will say, this is a 4 ft tank. You are doing somethig right. If you have a 4ft tank and you show it to people and they say "This is a 2 ft tank." Then you are not doing something right. So you want to extend your tank to make it look bigger. This is one of the usages of the reflection. Just now, Balazs asked a question... In my contest tank this year, I am not using this technique. Because I have the second usage of the reflection. Where I want to show people - as he said - a different kind of dimension. If say - I want to extend the tank to be longer I use plants. Normally... This tank... This tank exactly. You can see the reflection. Can you see the reflection? You can see the reflection on this side and this side. These are the extension. This is the extension. So if you take a photo this tank is 6ft maybe? It will look longer than 6 ft. Because the reflection is the continuation of the scape here. In my IAPLC tank this year I don't have this extension. But my reflection looks totally different from what is inside the tank. As Balazs said: it is like a different tank. For this one, you need to use hardscape. Wood... And rocks... In this case, I'm using the rock. You can not use a rock that it is uniform in shape. If you use a rock that is round or uniform in shape the reflection will look exactly the same. So you need to use some kind of rock or wood that is... Maybe something like this. In uniqe shape. So actually the reflection will show a totally different image. From this one... If you use something that is round, the reflection will look exactly the same. Use something unique. Then the reflection will show something totally different. This is how I try to create. If you want to have reflection, you need to plan it during the hardscape stage. Otherwise... You can not do it otherwise. This one you need to practice a little bit. How to have reflection. [Balazs] I've got another question about the reflection. And this one is about the top of the tank. We are sometimes using hairdyers to move the surface. What is your opinion on using hairdryers, versus just having a flat surface with normal reflection on. Personally, I'm a big fan of hairdryers. My tanks never had a calm surface. They always have ripples. Hairdryer surfaces. I do not want to show a mirror effect. Because if you have water surface reflection and you are not using a hairdryer - it will always have a mirror effect. So the water surface is like a mirror on top. Personally I feel that is too symmetrical. I don't like something that looks too symmetrical. Top and bottom. So I use the hairdryer to break this symmetrycal effect. To make the top portion to look a bit... Let's say having some ripples. So I'm a big fan of this ripple - hairdryer effect. But if you are doing something more in the Zen School... Something calm. Something more soothing. Then it is fine without the hairdryer - to me. And actually the hairdryer will also help to give a bit of a... Of course, I'm coming from the wild side, but the hairdyer will give you a bit of a misterious feeling. Like you don't want people to see too clearly. You want to make it a bit wavy and all this. Personally I like hairdryer. So normally my hairdryer is tied on the light stand. Because I'm only doing the shooting alone. So I tie my hairdryers on the light stand. "Give the audiencess as many things to look at as possible." This is actually almost the same. When you submit a tank photo to the judges, this is the only thing you have for the judges or the viewers. And if your content, your hardscape and your things are only a half - you are wasting all the empty space. Imagine that you only have this piece of paper or photo to show to the judges. Give them to see as many things as possible. Fill up your tanks! And if you can't fill up your tank, lower down the water. You see these award winning tanks. Left to right... Bottom to top. Front to back. Everywhere. They're filled up. Of course, you might ask: "what is this empty space"? This empty space is purposefully created! It is not left empty. Fukada wanted to create this empty space. On purpose! Same, this is empty space, empty space, empty space. We created that on purpose. If you create and empty space on purpose, it is fine. But you can not leave it empty for no purpose. Fill up your tank. But nobody wants to see a tank that is too congested. Too full. So the question is: how do we fill up a tank without creating this congested feeling? Also - many people fill up their tanks but when you look at that tank you feel like you cannot breathe. It's like too conjested. How to do it? To me, if you do something like this... It looks congested. And it is very flat. So we shouldn't do this. You are filling up your tank but it is congested and flat. What you should do is something like this. It's the same thing: you are filling up your tank... In fact, if you look at the size of this hardscape, the hardscape here is actually more than the hardscape here. The size here is actually bigger than here. But this tank looks spacious. Good tanks always invite the viewers to come in. If you make a tank that is like a wall... The viewers cannot go in. That is not good. A good tank will always give the viewers a kind of feeling that: "I want to go inside". Into your tank. So you need to have this kind of area to invite into your tank. I will give you some examples. You can use perspective. Layers, different layers. And then shadows. Use these three to create a tank that is not too congested. This tank is fully filled up. Very full. But... He created a very beautiful space here. This space... It makes you feel like you want to go inside. Into the tank. Even though the tank is fully filled up. Every single inch of this tank is filled up. But you don't feel very congested. Why? Because this area is very beautifully created. A big, empty area. And you see the perspective. This perspective, and the layers. Many layers. You can see this is in front, this is at the back... This is at the back, this is at the back... So there are different layers. So with combining the perspective and the layers he created this very very beautiful space. That invites people to go inside. And that is why you feel very nice. Again... This tank. He created this empty space And for this he used a shadow. Shadow is also a good way to create space. And also this small area here. Even though - the same thing - the tank is fully filled, you don't feel congested. Because he has this kind of empty space to invite the viewer to go in. Same thing. This is my tank. I created this big space here. With the perspective, and many layers. Fukada's tank. He created this space... A very beautiful space. This space. And also, he used the shadows, to create this space. And this space. Wolinski's tank. He created this space... And also the space behind. This space is in the back. Behind this. I'm talking about this space. And also this space in the back. This is a very good 3D demonstration. Now I want to show you some scapes that do not have space. With this scape - I don't feel it allows me to go in. Because of all this construct. Is like this. Like a wall. You don't see the space inside this one. If you want to create a spacious aquascape, You shouldn't do something like that. The next one... I call it integration. Integration means mixing stuff. We want our tank to look like one scene. Meaning that everything is like together. One scenery. One picture. But we also want the viewers to see the different parts of the tank. These are two different extremes. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. First of all we don't want our tank to look like all the things in there are individually existent. Meaning: you can see that this rock does not belong to this tank. Or this plant does not belong to this tank. That is not good. That is not good integration. But we also do not want to give people a feeling that if you look at a tank... you can not differentiate what plant is what. If all the plants are all mixed up. And you can not see which plant is which plant. Everything is like too much integrated. That is meant here. When you talk about integration, there are two things that can go wrong. One is no integration. Meaning items exist independently in the scape. Everything is like independent in your tank. No connection. That is not good. All items are mixed up and look messy. This is too much integration. So these are two extremes. All are no good. We don't want these two. We want something that is in the middle. I will show you an example. So what is needed to be integrated? Woods and woods - you need integration. Woods and rocks. Basically everything. Woods and plants, rocks and plants... All these - between these two - you need to have some integration. Everything! Even the reflection... You need to integrate it into your scape. There are some tanks, where integration looks very odd. You feel like something does not belong to this tank. It's not like what I explained just now. It is still part of the tank, but you can feel that it is part of a different scene. Different angle. But there are some reflections that are like very very odd. Everything in this tank belongs together. But you can still tell that individually... You can still see that this plant and this plant... And then you can find these plants individually. But they all look mixed together. [Balazs] How would you know what kind of reflection you have on the left and the right side while you're scaping? Because it's not filled up with water, so the reflection will be a problem. If you want to see, how the reflection looks like, put a mirror here. But only do it once. Because after that, after so many years, somehow you get a king of feeling, what kind of reflection you will get. This is a good example. This reflection, just now Balazs asked, This reflection doesn't look like it is the same as this. But it is too light. It looks like a continuation, but this piece, it doesn't look like this piece. It's totally different. If you look at this, you will feel like this is another part of the tank. It doesn't look like this reflection is this reflection. They are looking totally different. But to be honest, if you ask me, do I plan the reflection to be this way, I didn't. I didn't plan, even though the reflection is slightly off, I will accept it. [Balazs] You are lucky! Yeah, I will accept it. Though I did not purposefully want the reflection to look exactly like this. But I know, if I use wood, like this, the reflection will be different. It's all so unique. If you look at the other side, it looks different, I know. This tank is from my good friend, Roger. I say that in this tank, the integration is not enough. Why? The rock to me is too new. So if you look at this, you will that this rock doesn't belong to this tank. It is too new. Because totally, I know, when he shot this photo, the rank was over a month old. I know. He is my good friend. And then actually if you look at the higher resolution photo, this Monte Carlo's color is also very fresh, compared to the overall tank. Monte Carlo, if you leave it long enough, it will grow down. It will grow down, that is very nice. But in this tank, the Monte Carlo hasn't grown down yet. It is one patch, one patch, one patch... So if you look at the photo from here, you can see very clearly, if you look at the clear photo, you can see, that the Monte Carlo is like very independent. It doesn't belong to this tank. You know that the Monte Carlo is Monte Carlo. This tank is this tank. It seems like the rock here to me, it's a bit too new. This tank, I know that he put in the roots not too long before he took the photo. The rest of the tank may be I don't know, 2-3 months, 4 months old, I don't know. But this root to me, it looks like it's just been added, not too long ago. Again, this photo doesn't show it, but if you look at the actual photo, you will know. And this is another extreme. I call it too much integration. If you look at this, can you tell me, what plants he used? I cannot tell, I cannot tell you, what plants he used. All the plants are messed up. To me, this tank has been left too long. It's already over its prime. It's already over the right time to take the photo. Too long. I can only see a bit of Bolbitis. The rest of the plants are just green. This is why I say, we cannot have too much integration. And you cannot have too little integration. You need to know, exactly what amount is needed. Using this kind of example, it's easier to explain. Just now I'm sure that you guys will see a little bit blurry by seeing this kind of example. So this is too much and this is too little. And one more thing, you see the sand path. Too clean. This also shows, that... I mean the sand path is a sand path. The scape is a scape, I cannot connect them together. The sand is very independently there in the tank. It doesn't belong to this tank. It is like the sand path and the tank. No integration. That is what I mean. How to break this? You can use small rocks to decorate. Small pebbles, to decorate. Or simply leave it with some algae. A little bit of algae sometimes is good to integrate our tank. This... To me, the sand is too new. I think he put in the sand, or just cleaned the sand right before he took the photo. Sometimes too clean is not a good thing. We don't want to show people that our tank is too clean. You want to show some passage of time. To let people know that this tank is mature. If I look at this tank, actually the roots and the sand path are a bit negative points for me. Too clean. So to create a good integration, as I say, show the passage of time, let the tank mature. But not overmatured. You need to find the right time, to shoot tha photo , so that you have the right amount of algae on the sand, the plants show the right amount of maturity, but not too much. You need to find the right time. And then, planting technique. This is something that I always do. I don't do plans like this plant and this plant and this plant. I always mix them. In nature, you don't see plants, that exist individually. In nature, all the plants are mixed up. So this is a planting technique I always use. For example, my foreground. If you see my foreground, for example, I always put some mini hairgrass. Mixed with some Monte Carlo or... Or mix some moss with hairgrass, so that hairgrass will grow up from the moss. This is a part of integration. Planting is very important. So don't only plant this type of plant here. And then this type of plant here. This type of plant here. We are not selling plants like a shop. This is what a shop will do. Because in the shop, they cannot mix the plants, because they are selling it. But this is a good integration. The plants are all mixed. So don't only plant this plant here and this plant here. Try to mix them a little bit. Of course you need to know, what plant can be mixed, what plant cannot be mixed. Otherwise some of the more aggressive plants will just eat this plant and it will die. So you need to know how to mix. This one is something you need to learn from experience. And then you need to balance your colors and plants. It means that sometimes the colors are... We all like to have some red colors in the tank. Like this, like that. But sometimes the red color is too red, that it doesn't mix with the rest of the layout. This is nice, because he has some red, orange and even some of the greens are showing some red color. So a very nice integration. For some tanks, you can see a pure red and then the rest are very green. It looks like it doesn't integrate. Hardscape and plants are the same. We come to No.8, Contrast. So what is contrast? Many things. Big and small is contrast. We want our tank to have something big and something small. Not everything the same size. Bright and dark, the importance of shadow... Far and near, which is depth. High and low, thick and thin. Just now I'll say fast and slow, you can apply it to fish. The fish always represent something fast, dynamic. And everything else is stagnant. Not moving. So that to me is the most important thing is fish in our tank. We want to show this kind of contrast. Something that is moving and something, that is not moving. So when you take a tank photo, the fish movement is very important. we don't want to fish to be having that kind of... Not moving. If you see some photos, some fish are not moving. That is not nice. You want the fish to swim. To create a kind of a dynamic feeling. And then, the rest of the tank is not moving. That is the contrast for fast and slow. Heavy and light. You want to show something, that is heavy in your tank and something, that is very light. Dense and loose, it means the plants. In your tank, you should have an area, where the plants are very dense. Dense means very... a lot. And then you want to have some areas, where you only want to have a little bit of plants, to add the contrast. And others. So why is contrast important? Contrast can help you to achieve this. Layers, space, focal point and 3D effect. So that is why we need contrast. Let's look at this tank! What contrast do I have? Do I have big and small? Yes, I have big and small. I have big woods, small woods. Rocks, big rocks and small rocks. Bright and dark, of course I have, and some others... Actually all this is bright. And there are dark areas here. Far and near, I have it. You can see some things are closer to us, and some things that are farther from us. High and low, yes I have it. This really shows you the contrast of something very big. And then something, that is very low. To create this thing, actually this woods are tied with a fishing line to the top. And I did not remove the fishing line during the photo, because when you shoot the photo, the fishing line it gone. The fishing line is transparent. So when you shoot it with light, the fishing line is gone. Otherwise, I cannot position such a big wood at this angle. I don't have the skill of Dave. He can position the rock... If I see that rock, I'm very scared. Yeah, so this wood is huge. So I cannot position it at this angle. So I have to tie it to something else. Yeah! Okay, high and low, we have it. Thick and thin, of course we have it. We have very thick wood and thin wood. Fast and slow. The fish are swimming. You can feel that the fish are swimming. And the rest is not moving. Heavy and light, yes. I have very heavy stuff and very light stuff. Dense and loose, yes! I have something, that is very dense and something, that is looser. If you see this tank, what I have, I have everything, except for far and near. I don't have it in this thing. This tank doesn't show us something, that is far or near. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't mean that you need to have all. You need to have as many, as possible. Not to have all. Fukada's tank, he has it all. He has all the contrast in his tank. In this tank, I think he doesn't have one thing. He doesn't have dense and loose. Because to me, this tank, all the plants are equally distributed. You don't have the very dense and very loose. But it doesn't matter as I say, we need to have as many, as possible. But you don't need to have it all. Okay, we came to the last one. Details. Everybody knows details. I'm a guy, who values details a lot in my tanks. And if I'm a judge, and I was a judge and I still am a judge for some contests, I look at the details very carefully. Details are something, that... Sometimes you do it unintentionally. But if I'm a viewer, or a judge, if I find some details, I immediately fell in love with the tank. Yesterday I told Balazs, that with the tank Dave has created, he put the Pinnatifida on the rock. And the root of the Pinnatifida is growing, hugging the rocks. If you go, later you can go and see, that to me is a beautiful detail. Something that you don't create on purpose, but it happens. And this to me... The more I see the tank, the more I fall in love with those roots, that are hugging the... Those are very, very fine, small things. But it moves me. I'm very touched, when I see things like this. So details are not for everyone. Some judges, they don't even care about details, all these small things. But some judges like me, if I see this, I'll give a strong mark. Details. So details are small things. Not big stuff. For example, if you see some roots going out from the Rotala, these are details. If you tie the whole piece of wood with moss, that is not a detail. But sometimes, a little bit of moss, or Fissidents growing from the wood, a little bit, that is detail to me. If you tie the whole wood with moss, to me that is not a detail. But a little bit of moss here, those are details. Or if you use the Anubias, the root of Anubias can also hug the wood. That is also a beautiful detail. Or if you have, let's say you plant some small plants here, let it grow out a little bit. That is also a detail. So details are very small things. As I say, not everybody can look at details. But for people like me, who know how to look at details, we love it. Intentionally unintentional. It means that actually you want people to see your details, but you don't want to show it very intentionally. Like you purposefully go and put something here and there, I think that is not very... You need to show it very naturally. Not something, that you intentionally want to put details there, it may not look good. And then, remember, don't start details from the beginning. It doesn't work. Because details are something very small. If you from day 1, you start to put details, I can assure you, after two weeks, one month, the details will be gone. So normally, I only create my details one month before I shoot my tank. I start to look into details. If you do it from the start, you won't be able to maintain the details. They will be gone in no time. A tank like this has many, many details. For example, you know this wood that is hanging down. That alone is a detail. But if you look at the photo in a better resolution, you can see I actually tied moss on this wood, that is coming down. So all these small woods, they have a little bit of moss growing on them. Of course, when you project it out like this, you can't see. But if you see a better photo, all these are details. Because nobody ties moss on such a tiny wood. It is a lot of work. But if you see it, you'll feel that it is special. And you see all these small little plants here. These are details. Even in the very dark area, I tried to put some brighter plants. If I don't put the Pinnatifida here, this whole area would look like full of moss. But if I put a bit of Pinnatifida here, it will give the tank a little bit of detail, that makes it not so boring. That kind of feeling. Same. Actually I already explained it. Here, if you look at the higher resolution, in this area there are many small details. These are the nine techniques, that I want to share with you today. Actually, it is just as a reference. It is not something, that you have to do. A reference. And there could be more things, that you can do. These nine things are things, that I always do, when I prepare my contest tanks. Of course I do not have a list, that I must do this, I mus do that, no, I don't do that! As I say, I've been in the hobby for 12 years. These things are inside my DNA. I don't have to plan for it. But I know when I do tanks, I have these nine elements. I don't have a checklist, that I must tick. No, I don't do that, but if you look at this list, and you take any one of my tanks, I have maybe... sometimes not all, but at least seven or eight of them. Of course, you don't need to have it all. Sometimes you can't. Yeah, but I try to have as many, as possible. And I'm doing this thing without me purposefully planning to do it. Because I've been in this hobby long enough, for 12 years. I always do this nine stuff in my tanks. And I would say that so far it's been working quite well for me. I'm now open to you all, if you have any quiestions, you can ask now. I'm somewhat confused about where you said earlier, that you should fill up the tank and then you said you should add details after you've set up the tank. How do you reconcile these two things? Good question! I mean what he asks is that I say that I should fill up the tank from when I do the setup. Don't leave any empty space. But I also say that I should do the details at the very end. So these two things look or sound contradictory. Which they are not. Because I also mentioned that details are very small things. I'm not saying that at the end, I add a big piece of rock inside as a detail. Details are very small things. So even though I filled up the tank already, I can still add a bit of rock here, small rocks, a bit of small wood here and there and small plants. So details are very small things. So adding them basically a few weeks before the shooting is fine. As long as the color is matched. I don't want my details to look not integrated. As long as I give enough time, for the woods or the rocks, to have the same color as the rest. It's okay, to add them at the very end. Very small things, not big things. [Audience] Can you please explain us, what are the techniques, that you are using, to attach the moss on the hardscape? I'm an old school guy. I use lines. I don't glue my moss. Never! I never glue my moss. I use lines. Because I feel that if you use lines, to tie your moss, when it grows, it is looking the most natural. If you glue your moss, it's simple. Very simple! But you need a lot of trimming, to let the moss grow the way you want it. But tieing moss also has different techniques. For me, if I have a clump of moss, what I do is that I will cut them to very, very small pieces. I don't take the moss and then directly put it on rocks or wood and then tie it. I never do that! The moss, I cut them maybe to the size of one centimeter. Cut them very fine. Then I put it into water, I try to loosen them. And then I use all the small pieces of moss, and put them on the rocks or woods. Why? Because if you just take one clump of moss and you put it on it, first of all, you are wasting a lot of moss. And then they grow very slow. Because the moss... Let's say this is the moss. If you put your whole piece of moss on your rock, they only grow a little bit here, A little bit. They will not grow the full... Every single brush won't grow. It will only grow a little bit. But if you cut the moss into small pieces, every single piece will grow. Of course there are some scapes, where you can use dry start. Personally, I only tried dry start one time. In all these years, one time. I tried it because I had a big piece of rock, that I cannot tie. And I don't like to glue. So I dry started the moss on the rock. One time in the 12 years aquascaping journey. You can do that. Personally I'm not a fan of dry start. But if you feel like you need to do it, do it! Gluing is fine, but I feel that when you glue the moss, when they just grow, it doesn't look nice. It doesn't look nice. But it is very convenient to glue. Actually I think it's very convenient to glue, but as I said, I'm a very old school person. I like to tie the moss. And I use a very cheap line. The sewing line, you know. Very very cheap. Dark color, back or green. [Audience] Where are you getting your inspiration from? We've seen all your guidelines, what you have as an instinct, or what you consider when you're building a layout. And we've seen that with Dave that he's having a lot of sketches in his sketchbook, so he's kind of like replanning, or when he has a good idea, he's making a draft. How about you? In between the contest, you already have in mind, what you would build next, or is it coming suddenly from somewhere? Or how is it happening with you? If this question was asked by somebody, who is interviewing me and wants to put my answer ina magazine, I would say my ideas come from nature. Which is a lie. I never get my ideas, while exploring nature. To be honest. I also want to say that there are people, who get the ideas from the material, that they have. For example in your house, you know, we have woods and rocks. And the your try to find ideas, to suit your rock and to suit your wood. I think this is also a wrong technique. We cannot let our creativity be limited by the material that we have. To me, you need to have the idea first and then you go and find the material. Not the other way around. So to answer your question, My inspiration comes from everywhere. It can be anything. I wan to take the example of Congo, my triple world championship winning tank. The inspiration came from a movie, Tarzan. And for this year, my inspiration, I accidentally saw some woods around my house. And then it suddenly just "Ting" and you have the idea. It can from everywhere. From a movie, from people around us and from the internet. If you browse the internet and you look at some photos and all this. While I say that my ideas normally don't come from nature, I actually like to go into the jungle a lot. But I hardly get any inspiration, to do tanks from the jungle, because I like to explore all this jungle or nature through photos from the internet. Because those photos on the internet are... We know that it's beautiful. If you go to the nature, you see mountains, you see plants, you see... But those are... You need to have very special eyes, to recognize the beauty and I think I don't have the special eyes. To really translate the beauty of real nature to a tank. But if I see a photograph, already taken in the nature, I know that this photo is nice. Because the photographer already does the filter for me. He really does the filter for me. So of you go to nature, you see a lot of plants, a lot of nice things, but I cannot use that in mine. Yeah, but normally if let's say ADA asks me, I will I get my inspiration from nature. [Applause] I have one last question for you. The question is that you have a chief so much in competitions and you have taken so many prizes home. What can a guy like you do in the future? What are your plans? What do you wanna do? Well... As I said in the very beginning, I'm a contest person. If one day I stop doing contests, I may stop continuing this hobby. So I will still go for contests. But I feel that I need to slow down. Now every year, I do 3-4 tanks. A year! A tank this big. Not this big, this big. 4 feet, 5 feet. Every year, 3-4 tanks. I feel that I need to slow down. I think my family need some more time and myself, I need a little bit more relaxing time. So I feel that I will still go for contests, but slowing down a little bit. As for what kind of tank I will do, well I always liked to do something new. I don't repeat my stuff. Also, I try to do something new. And whether I can find something new, at the moment I don't know. So I think maybe in one or two months time, I will start to... This question will come to my mind. But now... not yet. I think this is the best tutorial, that we have on Green Aqua so far. And I'm pretty sure, that one of you guys , future IAPLC champions are watching. Here in the room, or there on YouTube. You are going to win, because of what Josh told us. No no no, this is not true! I know you are very humble, but we, even I have learned so much from here. Congratulations again, for winning the IAPLC this year! Absolutely! And thanks for being here! Thanks for being here with us! Subscribe to the Green Aqua YouTube channel, if you didn't do so yet! And see you next week! Like this video, if you liked his work today and until next week! Goodbye! Bye! Bye!
Just finished watching this seminar and I feel like this has so much fantastic advises
One of the best aquascapers. I loved his style
Green Aqua is also an excellent page. Learned so much from these guys.