Gomer

It was a wonderful turnout with tons of great tanks. I think it was said by Karen via emails, that this year we had the most tanks to judge and the least amount of time to do it. I think that showed through a bit in the amount that we were able to comment. I know I wanted to comment on a lot more but just didn't have time.

That said, I'd be happy to talk with anyone on any of the tanks.

AaronT

I'd love to hear any comments / criticisms on my "Rotala Rainbow" tank please.

Gomer

Aaron, please PM me the link and I'll reply back to you

Phil Edwards

I'm not quite sure what to think about this year's contest. It's obvious which of the aquascapes were entered by folks who placed very highly in the ADA contest. Unfortunately they more often than not got some of the highest prizes. I'm not saying that's a bad thing in general, but for some reason this year it's left a bad taste in my mouth. Overall I think the tanks were as good as last year's and the number of participants was fantastic! I've got to give all the judges serious credit for judging all of those in the short time allotted.

Even so, I'm sorely dissapointed in the biotope section this year. (Am I a broken record?) The setup Chong Ah Guan is the best biotope aquarium I have ever seen! Yes, there are far too many fish in that tiny aquarium, but I could otherwise swear I was swimming in the water with the fish. It seems that this is becoming more and more influenced by the aquascape portion than the biotope portion of the name where comparing it to more traditional aquascape standards is more important than aquascaping for a natural appearance. Yeah, I'm a broken record.

Where were all the US participants? Are we getting enough internet activity and recognition from our forums? Are we not feeling up to par?

Overall I think the judging reflected the quality of the aquascapes and I was very happy to see more setups from people who weren't in the top 50 of the ADA contest. I'm kind of upset that some of the top ADA participants also participated in the AGA as it definitely skewed the data set, so to speak. Still, some of my favorite aquariums didn't place this year and were clearly designed and maintained by the "Everyman/Everywoman" aquarist.

Thank you all who participated. I look forward to joining you again next year.

Steven_Chong

^
You know what Phil-- I got a lot of respect for you but I got to tell you (and this is a bit of my bad mood talking) that I don't want to hear it.

Here's an American *pointing at himself* who entered 3 scapes into the contest that he worked very hard on. Including the 2nd place in Biotope, and so I'm a bit nerfed by your comment about the weakness of Biotope.

Also including my entry to the ADA Contest which by the way, beat both Wayne Sham and Alan Chan of CAU in that round. The cards fell differently by this judging panel, and I'm not going to cry about it-- those guys are great scapers too.

BUT I really don't want to hear anyone look down on the work of our American scapers because I know I for one gave it my all. If you think we didn't show well, then you should go and make the scape that will beat the pants off of all those foreigners.

Believe me, I'm going to keep trying as hard as hell too. I may not have done well this contest, but I'm only going to work to get better. If anything, I still feel the encouragement that at least Amano-sensei rated my work highly, and damn I'm going to work hard to not disappoint next year.

*edit* sigh, I can understand the sentiment about the ADA contest's impact on the AGA contest. Meh, maybe I won't enter the AGA contest next year then. :/

messy_da_legend

I think I agree with Phil about the high placing ADA tanks. I mean, the three that won the first 3 aquatic garden catagories were, guess what? High ranking ADA scapes, with the ADA winner getting best of show. Fine, they're awesome tanks and deserve to win, but it does leave you feeling a bit "meh" lol.

I wouldn't agree about the Biotopes being a disappointment, but Chong Ah Guan's tank was definitely my favourite there too. Jeff Senske's tank did nothing for me really, and the puffer wouldn't really fit long term. I did like Steven's idea of the Wabi Kusa though, as it's different and locally collected!

Tom

Phil Edwards

Steve,

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining, I'm being curious. I saw a ton of participation from international aquascapers compared to people from the US. I'm curious to know why a lot of the people from the US didn't participate this year. For myself, because of a divorce and a very chaotic past year and a half I haven't been doing much in the way of aquarium keeping for the past two years. The fact of my lack of participation was I just didn't have anything to enter. I'm wondering what the reasons many of the other people who used to be standard participants aren't doing it anymore.

Across the board I was very pleased with the judging and feel that given the submissions and the judging criteria they were the proper choices. As far as the "ADA entries" goes it's clear that the difference between those entries and those of the rest of the field is huge. I'm glad to see such high quality participation but it also makes me sad because in some cases it left no opportunity for the rest of the participants.

On the biotope category. Given the criteria the judges have to work under the judging was proper. I like the #1 tank and think it's a very pretty aquascape with a very generalized "African Theme". Likewise with your Wabi Kusa. It's a gorgeous piece of work, was executed very well, and deserves the ranking it got under the current judging criteria. My dismay stems from the construct of the judging criteria where the aquascaping component of the rubric is still so heavily weighted and the general thought of "aquascape" means Aquatic Garden and not Natural Re-creation.

I apologize if you felt I was coming down on you or making less of your efforts. You're an outstanding aquatic artist and have done some pretty awesome stuff. Credit is due where credit is due.

Ben Belton

I was going to say the results are back, but looks like I missed a few posts somewhere and it's old news

Oh well

Anti-Pjerrot

Steven - I had 2 tanks, but i fell like waiting until they were at their best. I could have sent in an unfinished scape though, but i didn't feel like it.

http://www.akvarieplanter.dk/forum/a...=642&user_id=5 (not finished by a mile...)

Nice to see a dane entering though (Ole P.), and i hope to enter next year.

As for AGA/ADA - i like that the competition from ADA (CAU mostly) has raised the overall quality in AGA.
I can understand why some feel like its wrong to enter 2 competitions with the same tank, but then again, someone else just has to knock it up a notch.
AGA is more "international" to mee, than ADA, due to the ratio of asian vs. rest of world in ADA - but then again - we (europe/america) just has to work harder and produce better scapes - like steven does

Poland and france had a lot of good tanks. It really shows that something is happening all over the world.

I agree, that biotope is weak again this year - but im feeling that the WK/NA aquascaping culture is going to influence into the biotope area over some time. WK/NA has a lot that can be used in the biotope, and soon i think people will consider wheter there WK/NA is into the regular scapes or into biotope.

As for judging - AGA and ADA really seperates here, mostly due to the NA scapes is valued higher in ADA than in AGA, and some people tent to forget the "rules" in aquascaping. I feel that AGA is stricter in judging among the lines of - like Phil said - aquatic garden.

Ajax

How about Oliver Knott's tank with the pirahna! Yikes! Tell me you wouldn't be at least a little nervous every time you stuck your hand in there. Congrats to all the winners!