Aquascaper in Focus (February 2006)- Norbert Sabat - Library

This month's Aquascaper in Focus is Norbert Sabat!

This month's Aquascaper in Focus is none other than our very own Norbert!

Norbert, thanks for agreeing to be this month's Aquascaper in Focus! Lets start off with me asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself.

I live in Warsaw (Poland), I am 27 years old and I work as an architectural engineer. Everyday I work in an office where I am busy with architectural projects - boring work, which does not really seem to interest me. I went to school at Warsaw University of Technology but I never really finished everything (probably one day). I always liked drawing, I also loved comics (Marvel, DC etc), I also entered a few "molding" contests but after high school I lost interest. I listen to all types of music but my favorite is hip-hop.

Tell us, how did you become interested in the planted aquarium hobby? How long have you been in the hobby?

Honestly, I never really treated the planted aquarium hobby very seriously but there was something that always pulled me towards it. I had my first aquarium in my childhood that my father took care of. Later on I took a break from fishkeeping for 12-13 years up until 2002 when my sister received a goldfish in a fish bowl from her friends on her 18th birthday. For some reason, I started to take care of that fish by changing the water every 2-3 months, feeding it, etc. It wasn’t a large responsibility but for many aquarists (although nobody will admit to it) it all started with just a goldfish or a Siamese fighting fish in a small cup.

In the summer of 2003 something pushed me to buy the poor goldfish a regular rectangular aquarium. Unfortunately, the goldfish was not too happy in its new home so it was soon moved back to the fish bowl but new fish went into the aquarium (Neons, Rams and Corydoras). It was a classic beginner tank as it was overstocked, under filtered, low light, and very poorly planted. At that point I was not even thinking of a planted fish tank, to tell you the truth. I never even knew that planted aquariums even existed!

Everything changed in the Fall of 2003 when I got hooked up to the internet and started to learn about this hobby. One day I surfed to a site that had pictures of planted tanks (Amano style and Dutch style) and it left a deep impact on me. At that point, I thought that in order to create a fish tank of that magnitude you needed an unbelievable amount of determination and knowledge (plus I thought that people that created these tanks were from another world).

My passion grew larger and in January 2004 I started a 100x40x45 cm tank. Over the next few months my fascination with Japanese planted tanks grew very rapidly. As a result, in April 2004 I changed my fish tank over to a planted tank (I installed more lights, Co2, started to fertilize etc). This is how it basically started for me. As you can see, I have only been in the plant hobby for less than two years. Oh yeah! The goldfish has moved from the bowl into a regular 40-liter aquarium that has been his home for almost a year.

From where do you draw the inspiration for your aquascapes?

This is probably going to sound weird or too general but my inspiration comes from nature itself where I am constantly searching for themes for my tank arrangements. “Searching” might be too strong of a word since 99.9% of my ideas come by accident -- sitting on a park bench looking at a clump of grass under my feet. I am a rather quiet and reserved person so that is why I love to take walks by myself where I think a lot. Very often looking at a fragment of nature (bushes by the pond, certain rock arrangements), I imagine how I can create something like that in an aquarium and what kind of plants to use in that particular aquascape.

Do you follow any particular aquascaping style?

My favorite tanks are in the “nature aquarium” style, especially works by Takashi Amano (only from the last 7-10 years though as the older ones don’t appeal to me), where there is a lot of artistic work. I don’t only like one particular type of arrangement but I rather equally like rockscapes as I do branches and root layouts. “Dutch Style” layouts do not touch me that much anymore as such glamour and splendor does not appeal to me. It actually reminds me of unnatural scapes, unnatural French gardens or French poodles (basically nothing that can occur in nature). As I was observing the last results in the ADA competition I can safely say that the “nature” themes are evolving into abstract offshoots. Although they did not all display a true natural picture, it was closer to my aesthetic tastes than Dutch layouts.