Planting to beautify a garden is common and can be done easily but how about creating an underwater garden? It is challenging because it involves the basic principles of design and applying them to an aquarium. But that’s the activity aquascapers or aquarists love so much.

Landscaping underwater, popularly known as aquascaping — the art of designing and maintaining flora and fauna in
an aquarium — has become a global trend, highly supported by social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram when it comes to sharing the awestruck look of growing aquatic plants in tanks.

In a crowded city like Jakarta where high-rise living is part of a growing lifestyle embraced by many urban families, aquascaping has become a popular hobby among nature-loving couples. Instagrammable aquatic plants are commonly on display in a family’s living room.

Armani, not his real name, says that aquascaping is his new pastime, partly prompted by an absence of space to grow plants in his apartment.

Although aquascape design and maintenance services are available in town, he prefers to do it by himself. “It is also a stress reliever,” he says, laughing.

Before starting the design process, Armani has to prepare substrate (aquatic soil), the lighting, ornaments (wood or rock), carbon dioxide (CO2), and liquid fertilizer. “Aquascaping is like recreating an ecosystem in a tank,” the 38-year-old told the The Jakarta Post.

Unlike most aquariums that use artificial plants, aquascaping uses aquatic plants such as Java moss, dwarf baby tears, windelov and amazon sword.

“In aquascaping, the focus is mostly on the kind of plants and style,” he says.

Living plants: Aquatic plants can grow well thanks to the created ecosystem that allows for good photosynthesis. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)

As a beginner, he plants Java moss, a more common aquatic plant from Southeast Asia. He adopts a nature aquarium style, with hills, mountains and valleys and red neon tetra complimenting the layout of his mid-sized aquarium tank. The aquascape becomes the focal point of his less decorated living room.

“This kind of green plant survives and grows best in medium light and well circulated water with a temperature of between 21 and 24 degree Celsius,” he says, adding, “Apart from that, it is easy to take care of.”

In developed countries, such as Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom, aquascaping started much earlier.

According to British aquascaping expert George Farmer, aquascapers are not really bothered by the fish at all. “It is the plants that are the stars,” he is quoted by Financial Times as saying.

Taking a beautiful glass tank and populating it with carefully constructed layers of stone, wood and aquatic plants to create a natural-looking underwater scene is both an art and science — and it is appealing to a growing band of enthusiasts.

Ray McCune, who owns an aquascaping shop in Norwich, says, people aged 30 upward spend the most money on aquascapng and “we get almost herds of millennials coming through the shop to take pictures: they don’t have as much disposable income but they are very enthusiastic.”

The popularity of aquascaping is also marked by the availability of retail stores offering aquascaping design and maintenance services.

The importance of an ecosystem with good photosynthesis is also emphasized by Wendy Kurniawan, an aquascaping expert who owns retail shop Aquajaya. “The ecosystem will allow the plants to grow,” he says.

Creating an ecosystem requires such elements as water parameter, nutrition, CO2 and balanced light. “The measure of balance depends on the plants. Just like humans, a thin man eats less but a fat man eats a lot. They have different needs,” Wendi was quoted as saying by CNBC Indonesia.

Each plant has its own needs. Some plants need less light and others strong light. There are plants that need less acid but others lots of acid.

“So, water and other aquarium specs should be suited to the kind of plants in the tank,” he says.