#1308 PIII - Beyond the Giants

About This Aquascape

A shared philosophy: The idea of bringing a slice of nature into our living space, inspired by Takashi Amano-san’s Nature Aquarium philosophy, strongly influences how I approach aquascaping. For me, an aquarium should not simply look like nature, it should live like nature. The principle is to find the balance between science and art, function and beauty, while creating ecosystems that are practical, sustainable and able to mature over the long term. Most importantly, plants and animals are not decoration. They grow, interact and gradually shape these worlds together. These are worlds that have been lived in. PIII - Beyond the Giants: Established April 2025, approximately 18 months old at the time of submission. 'Beyond the Giants' began as a larger home for Notty and Dotty, carrying forward the lessons we learned from previous projects. It was built around their needs first: open water, accessible land, strong natural structures and a continuous transition between aquatic and terrestrial spaces. The large hollow logs were once their shelters, while the stones, sand and wood all carried traces of their daily lives - climbed over, rested on and moved through. When they eventually moved on, we let the system evolve beyond them. A UVA/UVB light retained from the original turtle setup now runs at reduced intensity for the moss wall and terrestrial planting (it was switched off for the competition photographs). Over time, moss has climbed and spread across the hardscape, epiphytes and ferns have established themselves, and we gradually introduced some of our favourite smaller inhabitants: Corydoras, small schooling fish, shrimp and other life suited to the mature ecosystem that had developed around them. What began as a world built with two giant inhabitants has gradually become a more complex ecosystem shaped by many smaller ones. They were the reason this world was built. What lives there now is what grew beyond them. (All photographs submitted as captured, with no post-processing or content alteration.)