Hello all!

It was a privilege to meet everyone at the AAA gathering and heartening to see so many entries!

In ‘judging’ this contest, 90% of weight was given to the techniques mentioned at the presentation. This is somewhat like assessing paintings predominantly on e.g. ‘techniques of perspective’. Some renowned paintings use perspective to great impact, many others do not use perspective at all, or focus on other elements! So keep this narrow criteria in mind.

In assigning points, I used a convention designed for ease of categorisation, so under each criteria, each tank is rated either 1, 5 or 9. There is no in-between. You are either ‘average’, below average or above average (compared to the current basket of submissions). This accentuates / exaggerates differences.

- Peter 2024

For those interested, this is the weightage used:

• 30%: Perspective: how deep is the illusion of distance / depth?
  BSFB and the Rule of 3 sizes of hardscape

• 30%: Immersiveness: to what degree are we drawn to explore the depths of this scape?
  7/8 Omni-theatre, Austrian Slopes, Lost-in-nature density

• 30%: Distinctiveness: to what extent is this scape memorable / recognisable / unique?
  Kinkade Criteria of extremes / highlights & the Allure of Shadows

• 10%: Finer details, composition, upkeep and overall balance.

In cooperation with The 2hr Aquarist, the AAA is conducting a friendly aquascaping contest.

Three winners will be chosen by The 2hr Aquarist and there will be one People’s Choice Award. All four will receive awesome packages of The 2hr Aquarist products!

In his talk at the AAA meeting on 22 March 2024, Peter from The 2hr Aquarist presented 7 ideas to help improve your aquascape. They are summarized in the included slide. You can google any of these ideas and find more information, especially if you did not attend the talk.

These are ideas and suggestions, not hard rules. The competition is not about who can follow all of them or most of them. But the entries should incorporate at least one of the ideas Peter introduced, and demonstrate how it helps to improve the aquascape. That’s what the entries are judged by.

1. To participate, post 1 photo of one of your own tanks in this thread.
2. Entries showing any organism not legal in NZ will be immediately disqualified.
3. You will have to join the AAA Facebook Group to post your entry and follow progress.
4. The contest is not limited to Auckland, but you must live in New Zealand to enter.
5. You don’t need to set up a new tank, but you can tweak any of your existing setups to fit the purpose.
6. The contest closes at 11pm on 30 April 2024.
7. The People’s Choice Award will go to the entry with the most likes on Facebook, excluding the three winners chosen by The 2hr Aquarist.
8. Winners will be announced at the 9 May 2024 AAA meeting, and subsequently in the AAA Facebook Group
9. Prizes will be presented at the meeting. Winners who do not attend the meeting will receive their prizes in the mail.
10. Tip: If you post a photo of a tank that you aquascaped before you ever heard of the ideas this contest is about, you are very, very unlikely to win!

Have fun and best of luck!