Zen Garden Style Aquascapes

[John N.]

Zen Garden Aquascapes

If you have ever looked or been to a Old Chinese Garden, you'll feel a sense of tranquility and balance in the whole scene or environment. A Zen aquascape is often overshadowed by the Nature Aquarium Style which took the Zen Style and developed it further. The Zen style focuses creating sophisticated and graceful layouts with aquatic plants and hardscapes. Bonsai Gardens are fantastic examples of this principle.

The Zen emphasizes the relation of objects (domination and subordination) whereas a Nature Aquarium Layout adheres to creating natural nature. There are old Japanese Aesthetical rules that dictate a Zen Garden (whether it's in an aquarium or a landscape). For example, the position of rocks must be in a specific arrangement and order to qualify it as a Zen Garden. 3-stone Iwagumi based aquascapes are examples uses of this technique.

Here's an example of a Zen inspired Aquascape




Please discuss the techniques involved in creating a Zen Aquascape, and feel free to share your own Zen style aquariums. (Click here to discover other aquascaping styles).

-John N.

[goalcreas]

John, this is my ALL TIME FAVORITE scape by Pjan.
I have always loved the simplicity of this scape, but it is just a pure pleasure to look at.

This is probably the style that I like the best.
I see my next scape on my 75 gallon being something in this style.

[John N.]

This is one of my favorite tanks too! I love the green lotus. To me it capture what a Zen Aquascape iencompasses.

-John N.

[Pat7676]

I love this tank i think i have just sat here and stared at the tank for about 10 mins looking at ever part of the tank. Wish i could do something like this.

[goalcreas]

Pat, have you seen the build thread.
I will try to find it for you and post the link.
This tank has been down for over a year now IIRC

[Anti-Pjerrot]

Here you go

[goalcreas]

Here is the link to the build on APC
Making of the Old Chinese Garden by PJAN - APC Layout Contest Journals - Aquatic Plant Central

[dougz]

So Iwagumi is a sub-type of the Zen Garden Style?

[John N.]

Doug I would think iwagumi's are a subset of Zen Gardening, especially since I found out from Roy Deki's Iwagumi article, the word Iwagumi means "rock formations". In Iwagumi setups, the idea is have rocks gracefully control and give purpose to the overall aquascape.

It happens that actual Zen Rock Gardens have zero plants, and are focused primarly on the rocks resting in sand. The rocks, sand and other componets will be reflective of nature i.e the sand is the ocean, and the rocks are the islands.

-John N.

[dougz]

I would think iwagumi's are a subset of Zen Gardening

Yup, I have to agree..

But you'll agree that the tank pictured above looks alot different than the rock-based Iwagumi..

I love this style!!

The one pictured above is certainly restful, too, though..