The scapes
A tank is not one thing. It gets torn down and replanted, and each layout is a separate piece of work with its own intentions and its own record. This is every scape so far, oldest first.
Scope
This site is named for the aquariums rather than for any one layout, and this is the reason. 3 scapes across one tank so far. The earlier two survive as photographs and recollection. Only the current one has a record worth the name, which is the whole argument the rest of the site makes.
The 90P
- Format
- 90 × 45 × 45 cm rimless, approximately 142 L operating volume
- In service since
- 2021
- Scapes
- 3
June 2021
Nature style, wood and stone
Composition held up by hardscape. Twin driftwood branches leaning in from both corners with a sand path between them, Anubias and Bucephalandra worked into the wood, and a red stem group holding the centre.
- Style
- Nature style
- What survives of it
- Photographs only. Nothing was measured and nothing was logged.
September 2025
The java fern tree
The opposite discipline to 2021: one mass, one dominant species, a lot of open water left alone, and nowhere to hide a mistake.
- Style
- Minimalist, single specimen
- What survives of it
- Photographs only.
June 2026 Current
The Dutch 90P
No wood and no stone. Nothing holds the composition up except plant groups, their colours and the discipline of trimming them into shape. That is the change that made the light worth measuring: hardscape does not care whether the ends of the tank are dim, and plant streets do.
- Style
- Dutch-inspired street planting
- What survives of it
- The first scape with a record. Continuous temperature, pH and conductivity, logged maintenance, hand water tests, and a per-plant PAR survey.
Record Availability by Scape
Both earlier scapes were built and trimmed and photographed, and neither left anything a later decision could be checked against. No temperature series, no logged maintenance, no measured light. That is not a complaint about them; it is the reason the current one is instrumented.