Iwagumi Aquascape Build In Progress At Barracks 19 Common Area In Liberty Station - San Diego, CA

We're super excited that the Arts District of Liberty Station approved us to set up an aquascape right inside the main lobby/common area of our Barracks 19 Art Center building.  We plan to build an Iwagumi style aquascape in this 16 gallon rimless tank from our good friends at Ultum Nature Systems.

Iwagumi aquascape designs are very minimalist and as a design created by Takashi Amano, the rules if followed by aquascaper purists would be to use only one type of plant, one type of stone and one species of fish.  

Plant layout is typically the focal point of many aquascapes but for an Iwagumu tank, the focus is on the stones and its placement within the aquascape.  Even numbers are to be avoided as this prevents the symmetry that our human brain tends to deviate towards.  Some purist will use exactly three stones or five stones but playing around and not falling into even number quantity is the key to giving it a natural look.

Though the tank has yet to be fully set up (we placed it into the common area corner quite late into the wee hours) with stones and plants, we will scape it over this weekend and post updates along the way so stay tuned, fellow Aquascapers!  If you'd like to see in-person progress on this aquascape tank build, you can see it on the west-side entrance of Barracks 19 here in the Arts District of Liberty Station.  

**Update: This 40C rimless tank is now an Iwagumi hybrid aquascape put together by our teammate, Noah.