At this very moment in Florida, two brave souls compete head to head for planted tank glory.
One of the more spectacular events in the aquarium hobby is the yearly Iron Aquascaper contest. Similar to television’s, Iron Chef, the two contestants will take an empty aquarium and turn it into a complete aquascape. The contestants are provided the same rocks, plants, wood and surprise materials and must create their best and fastest design with them in an hour or less. The tanks are then judged by an independent panel of judges selected by the AGA convention. Jeff Senske of ADG provides commentary on the event as it happens. At previous conventions, the Iron Aquascaper has been the most anticipated event of the convention and this year promises to be one of the most competitive Iron Aquascaper events yet.
Luis Navarro by Jason Baliban at ProjectAqarium.com
There were some last minute changes to the challengers but now that the news blackout has been lifted we can announce that the competitors are world famous aquascaper Luis Navarro versus Frank Wazeter of ADG. I think this will be a really interesting match-up. I have met both of them and Luis creates nature style layouts that are very lush. Frank on the other hand is a major proponent for Iwagumi and is ultra minimal. I also want to point out that these are both especially gifted teachers. Luis gives a stellar aquascaping presentation for beginners and experts alike and is very approachable and down to earth. Frank is a major proponent bringing Iwagumi and Wabi-Kusa to the United States by sharing his rare knowledge with anyone who will listen. In fact, we will be interviewing him when he gets back from the AGA about that very topic. Watch for that in the next week or two!
We have aquatic agents at the AGA and will post photos as soon as they report in!
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Frank Wazeter
Sounds great! Although I have seen Franks work and have never seen anything impressive but his writing skill.
Frank is pretty much a hack, but he is a good writer.
Going to put this airtlce to good use now.
Uncouth. And I happen to disagree, Frank has made some impressive scapes.
Such as?
I haven’t seen anything notable from him at all besides the standard iwagumi scapes anyone can produce after purchasing some ADA gear.
I do happen to agree. While his scapes aren’t always the best, he knows how to talk the talk. He definitely knows how to create a masterful iwagumi on paper- doing so in real life seems to be more difficult for him. He has gotten much better over the past couple of years, however. What can you expect from a novice? I think that his access to the best materials available in the hobby will mean accelerated improvement of his aquascaping abilities.
For the record – the gallery work on aquariumdesigngroup.com is the work of Mike and Jeff Senske.
Lance/Brad – This forum and the event in general should be a platform to elevate the hobby and art form. Although your criticism may be valid to your personal tastes, you do a disservice to the hobby to lend such angry biased comments here. There are a myriad of forums to debate someones skills in the manner you presented. You would have made a stronger statement by voicing your support for Luis.