Welcome to the 2005 AGA International Aquascaping Contest!

Thank you to all who participated in our aquascaping contest this year. Once again, we had a record turnout.

We'd like to thank our judges, Carlos Sanchez, Mike Senske, Christian and Marie-Paule Piednor, and Karen Randall, for their hours of work carefully evaluating each and every entry. Without them, there would be no contest.

We'd also like to thank all the entrants from around the world who have overcome the barriers of the Internet, language, digital imaging and PayPal. Hats off to our sponsors, for giving the entrants one more reason to finish up, and to Phil Edwards for getting the sponsors. My personal thanks to Scott Hieber, Carlos and Phil for getting the word out. And finally, thanks to Ricky Cain for the ripply multinational dining room table logo concept, and the fantastic judge models from The Greater Seattle Aquarium Society.

-- Erik Olson
9 November 2005

Comments

The contest this year shows a very high level of aquascaping skill among many of the entries. I am a bit concerned however in the trend toward spending so much time and effort in "presenting" the tanks with special-effect lighting moving water "scaring" fish into schools etc. These may make for a dramatic photo but that is not what we are judging. We certainly want a tank to be clean adequately lit for viewing and properly trimmed and maintained. However when we get beyond that these "extras" become distracting and in a few cases actually made it difficult to fairly assess an aquascape. Beautifully designed and tended aquatic gardens don't need trickery to add to their beauty. I hope that the trend toward these very stylized presentations wanes and we can get back to the pleasurable business of aquascaping!
— Karen Randall

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