Iron Aquascaper 2010 Competition

This year’s AGA Iron Aquascaper Competition featured the experienced and seasoned aquascaper, Luis Navarro and ADG’s own, Frank Wazeter. Both aquascapers were given an equally amount of hardscape materials, aquatic plants, and substrate to create an aquascape in an ADA 60-P rimless aquarium. They were given a one-hour time limit to utilize their skill and experience in aquascaping to create a display that will need to impress the judges and the audience.

Now I must say that even the most experienced aquascapers in the hobby can have a difficult time creating an aquascape that matches their skill and knowledge of aquascaping. Being in the spotlight with given only an hour, it sure isn’t an easy task as the pressure builds up. Needless to say, both combatants remain composed as they worked their way through until time was up.

With that being said, lets take a look at some photos.

In the end, both combatants did a great job creating an aquascape given such a limited amount of time, hardscape materials, and plants to choose from. In a situation like this, these are the things to take in consideration when being on the other side of the aquarium and judging both aquascapes.

I believe both aquascapers did an amazing job, however, in the end I gave my vote to Luis Navarro. His use of minimal plants and a creating a striking hardscape made an overall better composition. Frank’s aquascape looked great at the start, however, as he progressed, too many plants were used and the placement of rocks in the foreground made it distracting. On the bright side, I do give my hats off to Frank Wazeter for putting up with the challenge and I look forward to see more work from him.

Thank you to Luis and Frank for putting on a great show and a big thanks to Aquarium Design Group for sponsoring the event.

Also check out my post on the AGA 2010 Convention Recap.