Bonsai aquascaping fuses contemporary aquascaping with the age-old art of Bonsai. This relatively new practice creates remarkable underwater scenes that mimic natural landscapes in miniature form. This article aims to demystify Bonsai aquascaping with an IntelliQuarium generated aquascape, offering a step-by-step guide to help hobbyists embark on this simple, yet fun style of scaping.
By the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll be well on your way to using IntelliQuarium’s AI-powered aquascape generator to get started on your own one-of-a-kind, centerpiece-worthy aquarium.
Why Start a Bonsai Aquascape?
Two words: Elegant simplicity. They embody those characteristics, making them a great choice for someone just starting out in the hobby. But despite their unassuming nature, they also have the capacity to be the foundation for an intricate, eye-catching centerpiece or award-winning work of art.
The Basics of Bonsai Aquascaping
At its core, Bonsai aquascaping is the practice of creating underwater landscapes that include miniature tree-like structures (much like its cousin, the Flooded Forest aquascape.) The heart of this style lies in the Bonsai itself, which is not a real tree but rather a piece of driftwood or a specially crafted structure that mimics the appearance of its real-life namesake. This serves as the focal point of the layout, around which the rest is anchored.
Building Your Tree
If you have never worked with driftwood or made an aquascape Bonsai tree, there are a few things to know before you get started. The techniques outlined below also work equally well for other styles that utilize driftwood, such as Nature and Jungle. Keep reading to learn more.
Choosing Your Tree Material:
A piece of driftwood that still has its roots can do the job if it has the right looks. However, a quick Internet search for something along the lines of “bonsai aquascape driftwood” will give results of excellent pieces that are purpose-made. Some vendors also offer customization, enabling you to buy trees that more closely match your generated layout. There are also plenty of tutorials and articles out there on making your own.
Prepping For Use
Getting your selected Bonsais ready for use is not hard at all. The main thing that needs to be done is to ensure your artwork doesn’t try to float away when submerged. There are three good ways to do this:
• Soaking: Simply leave the wood in a water-filled container until it sinks to the bottom. The simplest method, but also the slowest – it can take days to weeks to take effect, depending on the size of the wood.
• Boiling: Leave your driftwood in a pot of boiling water for at least 90 minutes. Using this method, you can have a piece ready to be used today, instead of days or weeks from now. The only drawback is that it is not as efficient at removing tannins as the pressure cooker technique below.
• Pressure cooker: If your piece is small enough, you can pressure cook it. If you have an Instant Pot, fill the pot with enough water to submerge the piece, set it to “pressure cook” for 15 minutes and allow it to cool on its own without venting (the “natural release” method.) This is the fastest way, reducing the time to sinkability to mere minutes from as long as weeks. As a bonus, this technique will squeeze out most of the tannins, leaving you with one less hassle to deal with. Performing additional cycles will remove even more tannins.
• Plastic canvas sheets: Cut a plastic canvas sheet to a shape that allows for proper placement and is sufficiently large enough to allow the substrate to weigh the piece down. Attach with silicone sealant or fishing line. Put in place before adding the substrate. This method is especially useful because it allows the wood to be placed before it has been treated with any of the methods listed above. You can combine this method with any of those previously mentioned to speed up the treatment process.
• Autoclave: Just kidding. That’s total overkill for what we’re trying to do here. Besides, if you have one, I’m sure this idea has already occurred to you and you don’t need me to tell you how to use it.
Dealing With Tannins
Fresh driftwood will release tannins that will tint the water brown. While tannin-stained water is harmless to humans, pets and aquarium flora and fauna in the amounts found in aquariums, you may not like the look it gives your scape. There are two ways to take care of this:
• Water changes (NOT RECOMMENDED!): Performing water changes will indeed remove tannins. However, I don’t advocate this method, except as done at your regular interval. First, frequent water changes create an unstable environment, which is bad for everything in your aquarium. Secondly, they are laborious and time-consuming which means more time working on your aquascape and less time enjoying it. Not cool. It can take weeks, even months, for a piece of driftwood to stop releasing tannins. Please don’t torture yourself or your aquarium by doing extra water changes just to remove tannins.
• Purigen: Fill an appropriately-sized filter media pouch with an amount that you can fit into your filter. Make two so that you can always have one in the filter while the other one is being cleaned; tannins can fill this stuff up pretty quickly.
Filling Out the Foliage
There are a few ways to use plants to bring your tree to life:
Mosses
These play a major role in Bonsai aquascaping, both as foliage and as an accent. Some beginner-friendly mosses include:
• Java moss: Versatile, forgiving, and grows in various lighting conditions. Grows quickly and will require regular trimming.
• Weeping moss: Cascades downwards, creating a graceful drooping effect. A great choice if you want create a look-alike Willow tree.
• Willow moss: Won’t grow too big and its somewhat unkempt growth can contribute to a wabi-sabi kind of aesthetic.
Stem/Epiphyte Plants
If you want to add a splash of extra color and texture or just want to up your game, there are options beyond moss:
• Stem plants: There are many readily-available stem plants that can be used to create foliage. Alternanthera Reineckii to mimic the changing colors of fall? Yes, please! Want to make a tree aflame with the intense colors of Rotala Macrandra Mini Butterfly? Why not? The only limit here is your willingness to try different ideas. Just be advised you’ll have to spend a lot more time trimming stem plants to keep your tank looking its best. If that doesn’t appeal to you, consider a slow-growing species or an epiphyte.
• Epiphyte plants (such as Anubias and Bucephalandra): These species can be attached to the tree using the methods listed above. These plants grow much more slowly than stem plants and will take longer to fill out your tree.
Attaching the moss
Whichever way you choose to build your tree, the plants will have to be attached to it. Here are some techniques to get you started:
• Thread: Wrap gently around the plant and wood, securing them together. Over time, the thread will dissolve, leaving only the flora.
• Fishing line (2lb-test, or the lowest you can get a hold of): Stiffer than thread and therefore slightly more difficult to work with, but won’t dissolve under water. A good choice for slower-growing mosses like Fissidens Miroshaki that take longer to attach to surfaces and stem/epiphyte plants that need time to grow out their roots. Remove after 2 – 4 weeks.
• Wedging: Plants can be wedged into cracks and crevices. As long as they remain undisturbed, they will continue to grow in place.
• Aluminum wire: The kind used for sculpting, crafting and terrestrial Bonsai trees. The most versatile option, aluminum wire is soft and flexible, making it easy to wrap around branches. It doesn’t have to be tied into place, won’t dissolve like cotton thread and won't corrode under water. It can also be shaped to conform to uneven surfaces. Twelve gauge is a good general-purpose size. Remove after 2 – 4 weeks.
The most important factors to consider when selecting which one is right for your setup basically boils down to personal preference and the size of your tank – the smaller your set-up, the smaller the leaves of your selected plant should be or it may end up making your scape look crowded.
Keep in mind that not every generated aquascape will produce an output with a stem/epiphytic canopy, but they can all be made with them instead of moss, and the other way around.
Re-Creating the Title Aquascape
Generate your own Bonsai aquascape here
1. Willow moss’s scruffy look makes it a close match for the growth here
2. Micro Sword is a spot-on match
The backdrop here would be best re-created with an illuminated background. If you don’t want to go that route, you can use paint instead. Check out the Duplicating the Background Color section of this article for a guide on how to use them on your own build.
Recommended background colors, extracted directly from the images:
RGB: 129, 43, 51
HEX: 812B33
Closest off-the-shelf paint match: Home Depot’s Cherry Cola, s130-7d
RGB: 252, 115, 38
HEX: fc7326
Closest off-the-shelf paint match: Lowe’s Emberglow, hgsw6627
As you can see, creating a real-world aquascape from your generated one is not as hard as it may look. Remember, the generated images are not blueprints to be adhered to without deviation. They can be used just as a starting point or general framework for an aquascape. You may find that you enjoy tinkering with the design, swapping one group of plants for a different species or moving things around. This is indeed an artistic process – there is no right or wrong way as long as you get the results you’re looking for.