Simple Aquascaping: Creating a foreground 

By Robert Paul Hudson

One of the most critical aspects of creating an aquascape is the foreground and how it relates to the middle and background. It can make or break the entire visual effect. Many people search for a low, carpet like plant. This is possible, but a similar effect can be created with larger plants.

Low light set ups.

For the most minimal lighting conditions, small Cryptocorynes and Anubias nana can be used to blanket the substrate as well as Java moss. Take a flat, porous rock, or any rock that is not too smooth, and lay the java moss on top. Wrap this with thin fishing line and secure in a knot. Arrange these rocks, as you would lay tile to cover the desired area. As the moss grows out the rock and line will not be seen. The java moss will create a dark green contrast to lighter colored plants. This also allows you to create the illusion of a sloped or hilly substrate or roadways. In the picture above, java moss is used very effectively as a dark spacer between a light green foreground, and a sloping hill of java fern. It creates much more of a sense of depth.

Anubias barteri var nana is a slow growing thick leafed plant that looks similar to the houseplant Pothos and grows from a thick horizontal root called a rhizome. This rhizome should be above your gravel with only the vertical roots in the substrate. This can be difficult with young freshly purchased plants if the roots from the rhizome have not developed yet. What I like to do is attach these plants to small pieces of lava rock the size of a golf ball or smaller. This serves as an anchor for the plant and the rock can be easily buried without burying the rhizome. Due to its porous nature, the rock will colonize bacteria and hold nutrients, and the small size allows the roots to still reach the gravel. Anubias can also be attached to rock and wood with its roots never touching the gravel. I have attached Anubias to corkbark, which is glued to the glass going from the gravel all the way to the surface of the water. In this case the plant will draw all of its nutrients from the water and may grow a bit slower than if it was in the gravel.

Anubias Wall

Cryptocoryne willisii

Suitable Cryptpcorynes include lucens, lutea, parva, and willisii. Cryps can be grown very close together, or even bunched together. When small Cryps are bunched together, the roots intertwine and even the rhizomes will fuse together creating one large bushy plant. In fact quite often when you purchase a potted or Cryp plug, the nursery has already done this. These Cryptpcorynes are fairly easy to grow and maintain as long as you leave them be and keep a stable environment.

 Planning the Aquascape

The most common thing people do is fill up the back of their tank with Swords, Crinums, and Vals and then try and find room for smaller plants in the front. Ho Hum! I went at it from a different angle. I kept the back glass open and framed with plants of varying height. I siliconed rocks together to create walls and crevices and an easy terrace. I attached cork bark to the rear glass to create a V pattern frame to the rear center glass. Most of the Cryps and Anubias are short to moderate height throughout my foreground, middle and even parts of the rear. This gives a much greater sense of depth when viewing the tank. Large plants are wonderful if you want to limit the visual focus, but small plants in scale to the aquascape open up a much larger view. To plan an aquascape, what has worked for me is to divide the available tank space into three sections: left, right, center. Look at each section and think how you can build a major focal point and sense of depth. Will it be a rock on a hill, a piece of moss covered wood, or a tall plant or group of plants? Then what will I put between each section that will tie them all together visually? Rows of Cryptocorynes, moss covered stones, rows of Anubias, or perhaps simply a bed of larger stones? Whatever form of fore-mid ground cover you choose, it should be uniformly the same through out the entire aquarium. 

Glossostigma and Pigmy chain sword

Moderate to bright light

 Under higher lighting conditions your choices for plants are much greater. Grass plants, thick clover like beds, dense sod like lawns, tiny stem plants, and four leaf clover.

There are a number of grass like species, but the shortest and most densely grown is Lilaeopsis which reaches a maximum height of 2 to 3". Like many plants it is commercially grown emmersed and must adapt to submersed growth before it spreads in your tank. It is available in sods of various sizes or potted. Its very light green in color and needs a sharp color contrast of dark plants or wood to really stand out. I have used it beside a chestnut colored wood that makes it look just stunning. 

Taller grass plants such as the Pigmy Chain Sword species reach a height of 4 to 6". A thick lawn of these plants has an untidy out of control look, but planted as sporadic clumps along side rock and wood looks very natural and picturesque.

 Glossostigma is a delicate little stem plant from Australia that grows into thick mats. Its wispy stems support a very small single clover like leaf with a maximum height of 3 to 4". Once established it will grow and spread very quickly, and for this reason has become very popular in recent years. It will not ship that well which is why many stores do not carry it, and it will not hold up in your tank if you have fish that love to peck and nibble at plants. Other stem plants can be used in the foreground if constantly pruned: Pearl grass, Micranthemoides, Lobelia, and even Hygrophila difformis.

 Marselia is an aquatic four leaf clover that grows naturally as a bog plant in ponds, but adapts fairly well to submersed growth in an aquarium. The dwarf specie does the best job of growing under water and is most suitable for the foreground.

 Aquascaping designs using these plants follow the same rules as already described. If using stem plants that reach heights exceeding the foreground, simply remember they need to be in a place that can be easily accessible for frequent pruning. 

Cleaning the foreground

 It is important to keep the foreground free of debris and algae. Those growing as dense carpets will collect floating garbage until it looks very unsightly. If you do it frequently enough, simply running a siphon vacuum over it should do the job without uprooting the plants. Those that have shallow roots are the most difficult to maintain without up rooting them particularly during the first thirty days of planting.  With a little patience, you can have a very attractive looking display that will give you countless hours of enjoyment and relaxation to the envy of your family and friends.

Plants in this article currently available from Aqua Botanic: C willisii plugs , Java moss, Java moss rocks, Pigmy chain swords, Anubias nana, barteri, coffefolia, Micranthemoides, Hygrophila difformis, C lucens, C lutea