ADA Nature Aquarium Gallery and Japanese Aquascaping

[Nigel95]

Hey everyone

In October 2019 I have been to Japan and have done lots of aquascaping activities. I made a cinematic video with the best highlights of my trip. I hope you will enjoy the moments through my camera lens. Please subscribe if you like the video.


During the trip I have been to:
- ADA Nature Aquarium Gallery
- Home of Mr. Takashi Amano
- Sumida Aquarium
- Aqua Forest Shinjuku aquascaping store in Tokyo

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

 

[Shinobi]

Brilliant!

 

[Tim Harrison]

Nice video, very inspirational. Thanks for sharing Nigel

 

[Fisher2007]

Great job. Well done

And very jealous! I'd love to go

 

[Paul27]

Awesome

 

[Ed Wiser]

Nice would be a bucket list trip for sure.

 

[Nigel95]

Thanks for your replies! Glad you like it

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[Wookii]

Superb camera and editing skills! Looks like you got to view some pretty inspirational aquariums!

Did you have a favourite?

 

[Nigel95]

Superb camera and editing skills! Looks like you got to view some pretty inspirational aquariums!

Did you have a favourite?

Thanks for your compliment.

At the ADA gallery my favourite was the work of Yusuke Homma https://www.instagram.com/p/B1I-OwiprXx/?igshid=agluio5t0gl5

A lot of tanks didn't make it in the edit due the heavy reflections on the glass with all the tanks and lights in the gallery.

My favourite tank of the trip has to be the tank at Takashi Amano home that is running for like 20 years now I believe. It was so unique to drink a cup of tea while sitting and watching his tank and garden. The size of this tank makes it somewhat impressive.

But... Sumida Aquarium with all those big tanks in 1 room with relaxing music in the background was something special to.



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[Onoma1]

Superb video! Thank you for sharing it.

 

[Kevin2016]

Unbelievable how they maintain the tanks. Don't they struggle with algea/flow like most of us do ?
I read somewhere on this forum that they have low light/no 10x rule which means les maintance etc ?

 

[Nigel95]

Unbelievable how they maintain the tanks. Don't they struggle with algea/flow like most of us do ?
I read somewhere on this forum that they have low light/no 10x rule which means les maintance etc ?

As far as I know they don't have low light. Almost all tanks have ada rgb solar lighting. I believe (not sure 100%) ADA filters seem to have weak turnover on paper but its actually pretty strong if you compare it to other brands with the same specs. The tanks use the ada system which is designed to work together. It's sort of balanced. And please do not forget how much hard work they put into this to keep it in shape. They don't skip water changes or let's things get out of control and overcrowding. They have water quality similar to RO. Higher kh and maybe other variables can give issues aswell in some peoples tap water. But even this tanks have some algaes if you look closely. But I must admit the cleanliness is on point in Japan scaping wise.

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[tiger15]

As far as I know they don't have low light. Almost all tanks have ada rgb solar lighting. I believe (not sure 100%) ADA filters seem to have weak turnover on paper but its actually pretty strong if you compare it to other brands with the same specs. The tanks use the ada system which is designed to work together. It's sort of balanced. And please do not forget how much hard work they put into this to keep it in shape. They don't skip water changes or let's things get out of control and overcrowding. They have water quality similar to RO. Higher kh and maybe other variables can give issues aswell in some peoples tap water. But even this tanks have some algaes if you look closely. But I must admit the cleanliness is on point in Japan scaping wise.

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Tom Barr has visited ADA show room years ago and took a PAR meter with him to measure the light intensity. What he found was all tanks have 30 to 50 PAR at the substrate level, so the intensity is surprisingly low. ADA tanks are dominated by easy low light plants with few, if any, stem plants. ADA use form, tranquility and shade of green to bring out the beauty of aquascaping, not bright color as in Dutch style.

I Visited Sumida Aquarium and two Aquaforest shops in Tokyo last year and posted a thread on it.

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/my-visit-to-japan-aquariums.57800/

 

[Nigel95]

Tom Barr has visited ADA show room years ago and took a PAR meter with him to measure the light intensity. What he found was all tanks have 30 to 50 PAR at the substrate level, so the intensity is surprisingly low. ADA tanks are dominated by easy low light plants with few, if any, stem plants. ADA use form, tranquility and shade of green to bring out the beauty of aquascaping, not bright color as in Dutch style.

I Visited Sumida Aquarium and two Aquaforest shops in Tokyo last year and posted a thread on it.

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/my-visit-to-japan-aquariums.57800/

It's outdated honestly for the ada gallery. The other locations do not have ada rgb solar indeed. When did he visit 2008? ADA RGB Solar is on the market since 2016 and all bigger tanks have them. Its definitely not low light at the substrate. The fact that some tanks don't have stems in it with this LED makes it even harder to keep it more algae free.

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[tacy k]

Beautiful! Thank you!

 

[HamishT]

Tanoshii!

 

[tiger15]

It's outdated honestly for the ada gallery. The other locations do not have ada rgb solar indeed. When did he visit 2008? ADA RGB Solar is on the market since 2016 and all bigger tanks have them. Its definitely not low light at the substrate. The fact that some tanks don't have stems in it with this LED makes it even harder to keep it more algae free.

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Yes, the info is more than a decade old before LED. The light in use then was T5, which I heard was as intense as if not more so than LED. Some aquascapers today still prefer T5 over LED in the believe it can grow better plants. So without direct measurement to verify, we don’t know if the current lights are necessarily more intense than the older lights given that ADA preference of easy plants hasn’t changed..

 

[Nigel95]

Yes, the info is more than a decade old before LED. The light in use then was T5, which I heard was as intense as if not more so than LED. Some aquascapers today still prefer T5 over LED in the believe it can grow better plants. So without direct measurement to verify, we don’t know if the current lights are necessarily more intense than the older lights given that ADA preference of easy plants hasn’t changed..

Yes nothing wrong with T5. I have an ATI myself for my 120cm tank. Also with T5 the reflectors have huge impact on the actual par output in the tank. So without describing them it's hard to say anything aswell.

Sorry but with the measurements of our friend Tiago (that doesn't mention par data at the substrate), I find it hard to believe that the tanks at the ada gallery are considered low light at the substrate. Even when using the concept of the inverse square law.

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads...ihiros-led-par-data-the-power-of-light.43178/

ADA hasn't changed the preference of easy plants I think yes. But the market at the moment demands more light output / proper spectrum to enchance red plants I think.

 

[Shinobi]

When I was there, I saw very healthy carpets of Glosso, HC and UG along with colorful stems of all sorts.

I think the term "easy plants" was used first by Tom Barr or Dennis Wong at some point and seem to have stuck with some people. After seeing the selection at the gallery myself I just wonder; what's an non-easy plant then?

 

[tiger15]

Flowgrow plant profile site classified plants into 5 level of difficulty: very easy, easy, medium, difficult to very difficult.

When I do a search on easy and very easy plants, they are low to medium light. When I do a search on difficult plants, they are medium to high light plants with one exception, Madagascar lace leaf that rated low light tolerant. When it comes to very difficult plants, they are all high light plants with no exception.

So easy and difficult plants is essentially synonymous to low and high light plants.