German (Open) Style Aquascapes

[John N.]

German Open Style

This style is more known as a combination of emersed and submersed setups. You may also know the German Open Style as a biotype or a type of paladarium. The designers/aquascapers of these layouts often start out with aquatic plants growing submerged and then allow them to grow emersed outside of an aquarium. The intended goal is to create a slice of nature that is more indicative of what you would find in a riparian environment, like at the edge of a waterway in the Amazon jungle.




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

-John N.

[goalcreas]

Don't know much about the style's or techniques or even all the equipment involved and what ideal tank sizes are, but I sure would like to have one of these one day, they are fascinating and the fauna potential is awesome.

I will be following this thread to hope to pick up some knowledge.

[Garhan]

This has been of interest to me lately. At the last CAOAC show in Canada. I came across a German book on Bonsai in the aquarium. It was very facinating and went through the plumbing and hardscape in detail and then went into the actual planting and plant care of the plants. Focusing heavily on the bonsai concepts. There was a good fix of aquatic, marginal and teresstrial plants in most of the displays. It sort of brought a good cross section together of a lake or stream in a mountain or foothills setting. I belief it has many possibilites in expressing a natural enviornment with several dimensions in mind.

[PascalvdN]

Although I don't think the paludarium shown here has anything to do with German style aquascaping, here's a link to the owner's site: Hans Paludarium

[oregonaqua]

OMG i had a nervous breakdown looking at this. I admit i would love to set up one of these but OMG!. That is some of the craziest Plumbing set up i have seen. i would love to see that in person and his Paludarium is even more amazing!!!

Hans Paludarium check out his plumbing

[John N.]

Originally Posted by PascalvdN

Although I don't think the paludarium shown here has anything to do with German style aquascaping, here's a link to the owner's site: Hans Paludarium

Can you elaborate on this? By that I mean, please elaborate on the definition of German Style Aquascaping. It's good to hear different perspectives.

-John N.

[Tobi]

Hi,

I don't think, that "German Style Aquascaping" exists .

Best Regards
Tobi

[PascalvdN]

Originally Posted by John N.

Can you elaborate on this? By that I mean, please elaborate on the definition of German Style Aquascaping. It's good to hear different perspectives.

-John N.

To be honest, I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as German Style Aquascaping. If I think of German tanks, the only thing that comes to mind are open aquaria in which plants are allowed to develop emersed leaves, e.g big Echinodorus or something similar. However, I'm not much of a connaisseur when it comes to German aquascaping.

What you show on the picture is i.m.o. not an aquarium, it's a paludarium. Focus here is on growing terrestrial plants, although part of these plants can also be grown submersed, e.g. mosses. Most of the plants however are not aquatic, e.g. Tillandsia, bromeliads, crypanthus, begonia, etc. If you have a closer look at the water section of the tank, you won't find plants there! In Holland I know of some paludaria that do grow some submersed plants, but this is usually restricted to crypts etc, due to low light conditions.
Paludaria are quite common in Holland, you might want to have a look at NBAT: voor alle vivariumhoud(st)ers (only Dutch unfortunately), select 'KEURINGEN' on the left, then select 'TERRARIA', to see a selection of Dutch paludaria that participated in a scaping competition from 2001-2007.

Pascal

[John N.]

You're right in terms of fully planted aquariums as we know it, the definition above may not apply as a German aquascaping style. However, to me the German Open Style encompass paludariums since these setups were first popularized by this particular region. Even though some areas of a paludarium layout may not have plants, the overall layout can feature plants grown aquatically and terrestrially as part of the full design. In the same regards, I believe biotopes (word orginating from the German word "biotop") also fall under the broad definition of a German styles. Afterall, biotopes were first popularized from this geograhic area as well.

The nice thing about this hobby is that years later, folks from all over the world have began recreating these setups in greater numbers. The geographic barriers that once defined a style to a particular region have become blurred.

-John N.

[plantbrain]

Jeff and Mike Senske seem to be able to do these with amazing designs and care. They have the set up and maintenance down.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[PrincessPea]

Boy, I hope he has a generator in case the power ever goes out. This is totally amazing, it's like a public zoo.

P.P.

[XPLOSV]

This is really interesting, I would love to set one up in the near future.
However I have no idea where to start.

[Hannes85]

Is there anybody, who made experiences with Paludariums? I would say, that we call them "German Style" hence ...

I',m afraid, that all over the water surface will be steaming up? Than you have limescale, or other pollution??

[paludarium]

Originally Posted by Hannes85

Is there anybody, who made experiences with Paludariums? I would say, that we call them "German Style" hence ...

I',m afraid, that all over the water surface will be steaming up? Than you have limescale, or other pollution??

Hi,

I had set up my paludarium 12 years ago, but it was torn down in 2000. I learned all the techniques and knowledge from German literatures. We might call it a "German Style" .

Regards,
Erich

[Hannes85]

Uh! this is great! Very cool! Never seen an Paludarium with such a nice underwater part.
What about the lightning aso.?

[paludarium]

Originally Posted by Hannes85

Uh! this is great! Very cool! Never seen an Paludarium with such a nice underwater part.
What about the lightning aso.?

Hi,

there were 4*HQI 150W on the roof.

Regards,
Erich

[Robert Hudson]

There is a difference between open top aquariums and paludariums. This isn't unique to Germany, and they make the distinction there as well, don't they? Then there is also the vivarium. I don't know if that term is unique to the USA or used around the world. A vivarium is mostly above water with only a fraction of the enclosure containing water. These enclosures usually house things like frogs, newts and so forth. Erichs first photo looks more like a typical vivarium with all the airplants.

When I think of an "open top" aquarium I think of Sword plants growing above the water line like what tropica plants describes:

Tropica

which is far from being a paludarium. I think the lines between these different classifications are becoming blurred by some people, and the more that people can effectively mix different enviorments together, the more interesting it becomes as a hobby and an art form.

[paludarium]

Originally Posted by Robert Hudson

There is a difference between open top aquariums and paludariums. This isn't unique to Germany, and they make the distinction there as well, don't they? Then there is also the vivarium. I don't know if that term is unique to the USA or used around the world. A vivarium is mostly above water with only a fraction of the enclosure containing water. These enclosures usually house things like frogs, newts and so forth. Erichs first photo looks more like a typical vivarium with all the airplants.

When I think of an "open top" aquarium I think of Sword plants growing above the water line like what tropica plants describes:

Tropica

which is far from being a paludarium. I think the lines between these different classifications are becoming blurred by some people, and the more that people can effectively mix different enviorments together, the more interesting it becomes as a hobby and an art form.

Hi,

There was an article in the dutch aquarium magazine "Het Aquarium" about 15(?) years ago. The auther gave all the following terms good definitions: vivarium, aquarium, terrarium, riparium, aquaterrarium and paludarium. But unfortunately I lost it. However, I am not sure if all these terms are also used in USA.