International Aquarium Design Competitions

The International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest (IAPLC) has been held in Japan since 2001. Contest organizers: ADA (Aqua Design Amano).

The purpose of the competition is to attract and unite aquarists from all over the world so that professional judges (artists, professional aquarists, editors of specialized publications, designers) can choose the best.

 Evaluation and selection is carried out according to photographs. Judging methods change from time to time, but at present this competition is considered the most influential and objective. 

  I have been participating in the IAPLC competition since 2011. And I can say with confidence that both the number of participating countries and the number of those wishing to present their work is increasing every year. The level of photography and the level of the works themselves are growing. This year 3 people from Belarus participated.  

My best achievement is the 211th place out of 2164 participants from 57 countries of the world, this happened in 2013. Then, before sending my work to the International Competition, I participated in the Nanoworld-2013 competition in Belarus, where I took 1st place .

Preparation for the international aquarium design competition

Aquarium for the competition is grown for several months or even a year. The day before taking pictures, you need to prepare it: change the water, cut something, trim, add sand, etc. It takes time: I prepared a 600 liter tank for 6 hours.

If you take a picture of the underwater world at least 1 day later than planned, the picture will already be different. The fact is that on the first day after changing the water, when using a powerful light source, the photo turns out to be very beautiful: all shades of green, yellow, red and brown are displayed.

You need to use a low exposure to capture swimming fish or waves on the surface. Sometimes they drip onto the water so that circles diverge, sometimes they remove stagnant water, because different types of aquarium design look different.

Backlighting is applied to create the maximum effect of the depth of the aquarium. If the background is black, we light up the foreground as much as possible to darken the background even more. But recently, almost no one uses a black background.

What gives participation in the international aquarium design competition

Participation in competitions is very useful. First, the winner receives a cash prize. Secondly (and for me this is more important) – recognition among other professionals in the field of aquarism at the world level. Thirdly, it is an opportunity to sum up the results of the work for the year and decide on plans for the future. In short, by participating in such competitions, you develop as a designer, you can look at the work of colleagues, take something new and use it in your work with clients.

Participation in competitions also creates responsibility. If you just have an aquarium at home that does not stimulate you in any way, the craving for beauty can fade over time due to domestic problems, lack of funding, etc., and a beautiful aquarium can very quickly turn into an ugly one. But when you are preparing for the competition, you know that in a year you will need to photograph it and you need to bring it to the end. 

There are other world competitions that are held in Taiwan, the USA and Europe. I did not send my works to Taiwan, but I plan to participate in competitions in the USA and Europe.

Many designers participating in the competition create an aquarium for a year, and then, when the goal is achieved, they “take it apart” and start all over again. And such an aquarium will never get bored. Enthusiastic people are constantly looking for new material, new plants, new fish, buy fertilizers. You constantly run to the store, but you enjoy it. Other types of aquarium do not give such a drive as aquascaping.

Photos of the works of the winners of international aquarium design competitions of different years from the site IAPLC.«