Making an aquarium with your own hands

We learn from the classics and decorate an aquarium with our own hands, from which both friends and inhabitants of the underwater kingdom will take their breath away.

To create perspective, the design of the Dutch aquarium uses a large number of plants of different sizes, contrasting in color and having different sizes of stems and leaves.

Fashion in aquarium design

There are fashionable trends in the design of aquariums, and among them are several trends that have become classics of aquarium design. The cultural traditions of Japan, Holland and the New World are surprisingly embodied in unexpectedly spectacular water landscapes. Looking at these works, you understand that it is impossible to repeat such beauty, but, looking closely, you discover techniques, details, patterns that help a beginner in decorating an aquarium with his own hands to create his first masterpiece.

For aquarium design, even a special term has appeared - aquascaping. So, we learn from the classics and decorate an aquarium with our own hands, from which both friends and inhabitants of the underwater kingdom will take the breath away.

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Dutch landscape in the aquarium

The deep perspective and naive realism of the landscape migrated from the canvases of the old Dutch artists to the world of aquariums.

To create perspective, the design of the Dutch aquarium uses a large number of plants of different sizes, contrasting in color and having different sizes of stems and leaves. Tall lush plants with filiform or very small leaves are placed in the background. Stem shoots with larger foliage - on average. The lowest bushes of algae and those that imitate grass are in the front. Due to this technique, a feeling of a deep multi-tiered landscape is created.

For planting, light and dark green, brown, yellowish and red algae are used. With an average of 10 cm2 of bottom per plant, this is a dense planting, but it leaves room for the plants to thrive and form in the aquarium that lush green landscape the Netherlands is famous for. And the floating small but bright fish give it a sharpness of surrealism.

Lighting achieve the effect of oblique sunlight, highlighting a piece of green thickets. The Dutch aquarium needs constant care:

• supply of carbon dioxide;
• soil fertilizer;
• pruning overgrown algae;
• careful selection and regulation of the number of inhabitants.

Such an aquarium, of course, is suitable for a classic interior in a modern interpretation, with elements of modernist chic. It will also be good in an eco-style atmosphere with a touch of travel romance.

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Collector style - the charm of chaos

Apparently out of sympathy for beginners, for whom decorating an aquarium in the Dutch style with their own hands is an impossible task, the masters of aquascaping canonized the so-called collector style. Its principle boils down to the following - if you use all available types of algae (from 15 or more), then over time they grow, crowding each other, and create the effect of a neglected English garden. In practice, this is what happens, provided that the aquarium is large enough, from 50 liters. So that the underwater landscape is not dull, they combine tall and short species, contrasting colors.

This uncomplicated design is surprisingly versatile - it fits perfectly into the ethnic style, and into the classic, Mediterranean, Scandinavian interior.

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Pseudo-natural 3D landscapes

Pseudo-natural style involves recreating picturesque terrestrial landscapes under water. To do this, when decorating an aquarium, artificial decorations are used that imitate mountains, gorges, rivers, and architectural objects. The task of the creator of the installation is to achieve the impression of reality and at the same time the fantasticness of the “picture”.

There are special pumps for reproducing waterfalls under water - they blow out not water, but fine white sand, which, flowing along the slope of the stone, gives the impression of falling jets. For classics, modern or art deco, the pseudo-natural design of the aquarium may turn out to be alien, but pop art, naive country, safari, marine design of the apartment will easily accept such an intricate aquascape.

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Japanese-style underwater rock garden

There are interiors in which the aquarium is stubbornly discordant with the overall design. These include industrial loft and high-tech, as well as sophisticated Japanese style. It is from Japan that the amazing principles of aqua design come from, drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of Iwagumi - the art of creating an empty space filled with philosophy.

With stingy but expressive means, using soil, sand, carpet algae and a few stones, you can turn a Japanese aquarium into a universe. A flock of small fish seems to be flying somewhere in infinity, over a desert planet.

Stones play a major role in the Japanese aquarium. There can be three or four of them - one large (main), one or two additional and one very small, "sacrificial". Do-it-yourself design of such an aquarium will help layouts of stones designed specifically for Japanese compositions.

In continuation of Japanese minimalist traditions, aquascaping enthusiasts began to create rocky compositions free from canons with islands of undersized carpet algae. The discreet, elegant design is also suitable for small fish tanks.

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Fairy tale world of the Disney Mermaid

The vibrant world of animation from the Disney films about Nemo and the Mermaid has enriched the aquarium hobby with new ideas. It has become fashionable to copy scenes from cartoons, where the inhabitants become living characters in a fairy tale. It is difficult to come up with a better option for decorating an aquarium for a child's room.

On sale are grottoes, shells, corals, castles and sunken treasures made of synthetic materials. Neon colors and bizarre outlines of the underwater world are complemented by rare patches of algae. For this style, you need to select the most intricate shells, bright types of fish and crabs.

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Accessory palette

Accessories for a landscape aquarium can be bought or found on a walk, but in any case, they must be properly processed before being placed in the water. The exception is decorative film.

decorative background

The film is glued to the outer side of the back wall, so there is no need for preparation and safety checks. An aquarium background created by a professional designer helps to create a background, perspective, and enrich the landscape with details. Ideally, the underwater decoration of the aquarium blends seamlessly into the background, and when this effect is achieved, the result is impressive.

The stickers use Disney stories, there are also series in Japanese and Dutch style - to help those who decorate the aquarium with their own hands for the first time. As a rule, models of stones and other elements of the underwater world are offered for stickers.

You can also use a volumetric background attached to the wall from the inside, but you need to know what dangers it poses for small inhabitants. If the plastic background peels off the wall of the aquarium - and this happens sooner or later - then the fry and small fish, swimming into the gap, will not be able to get out on their own.

Models of stones and pearls

Stones, grottoes, treasure chests and corals are all made of synthetic resins and require antiseptic treatment according to the instructions before use. The finished decor is fixed on the bottom and walls of the aquarium with silicone glue, building the basis of the future composition. Subsequently, it is supplemented with plants and inhabited by inhabitants.

wooden driftwood

Driftwood and branches are a fashionable element of decor. They imitate the roots of plants, the trunks of fantastic underwater trees, the slopes of gorges. Usually they are used in aquarium decoration not by themselves, but as a platform for growing moss. Moss is tied to a snag with a fishing line or ordinary cotton thread, and it grows, forming, according to the aquarist, the crown of a tree or thickets in mysterious grottoes.

Purchased snags must be boiled for two hours before use. When choosing suitable samples in the forest, one must remember that resinous and tannic wood (coniferous, oak) is not suitable, it will paint over and acidify the water. We need dead old roots and branches that do not secrete juice and resin.

They are boiled for a long time, in several waters, until the water stops coloring. Then they are boiled in salt water and soaked again in fresh water - all so that the wooden decor does not soften the water. For an aquarium, the safest are whitish driftwood, run in by waves and thrown onto the shore of the sea or river. As a rule, they have expressive streamlined shapes. But they must be strong enough, not rotten.

To prevent wooden elements from floating up, the composition must be fixed with silicone glue.

natural stones for aquarium

Natural minerals, of course, are more expressive than a dummy, but not every stone is suitable for an aquarium. To begin with, the found stone should be washed and boiled well, and then vinegar should be dripped. If the vinegar sizzles, it means that lime is present in the mineral, and this harms both plants and fish. You should pay attention to granite, basalt, quartz, sandstone, and even better - buy ready-made stone elements for an aquarium in a specialized store.

Immediately before laying in the vessel, the stones are cleaned with a stiff brush and scalded with boiling water. When forming a composition, the preferences of the inhabitants must be taken into account. Shrimps are looking for small caves, there should be a lot of them, “to choose from”. Cyclides will choose grottoes made of sandstone - the stones must be fastened together with silicone. otherwise large individuals will destroy their own shelter.

Soil selection

If you first took up the design of the aquarium and decided to do everything with your own hands, then it is better to take the soil ready. There are too many factors to consider when choosing it - composition, size, uniformity of fractions, color - everything matters. When buying, be sure to tell the consultant what plants and fish will live in the aquarium.

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The procedure for filling the aquarium with decor

All the decor that was discussed above does not make any sense if there are no plants, fish and small fauna in the aquarium. It is in order for them to be comfortable that they need to decorate and fill the containers in a certain order.

• Buy everything you need.
• Preparing driftwood and stones is the longest procedure.
• Process dummies.
• Install the underwater part of the equipment.
• Create a composition of roots, snags and dummies.
• Backfill and level the ground.
• Install, if necessary, a pump to simulate a waterfall.
• Moisten the soil and plant the plants. Add some water.
• Secure Java moss with thread / fishing line on the lower tier of snags. Add water again. Repeat until vertical gardening is complete.
• Fill the aquarium with water. Connect equipment.

It is important from the very beginning to ensure the supply of carbon dioxide to the aquarium, which promotes the development of algae and improves their survival. When the plants in the aquarium take root, you can put fish, crustaceans and other inhabitants into it.

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Instead of parting words

Nothing can bring more joy to a beginner aquarist than a well-designed aquarium. There are more than enough opportunities for this, go for it!

Photo gallery - do-it-yourself aquarium design

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Video

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