Thinking about building an aquascape inspiration site — want honest feedback before I build anything

[Vis123]

Long-time lurker in the hobby. I’ve been chewing on an idea for a website (maybe a weekly newsletter too) that’s focused purely on curated aquascape inspiration — not another feed to scroll, but something with an actual point of view: why a scape works, what makes the hardscape/planting choices interesting, styles worth studying, that kind of thing.

Before I build anything, wanted to ask people who’d actually use it:

• Where do you currently go for aquascape inspiration — Instagram, YouTube, forums, contest archives?

• Does that already fully scratch the itch, or is there something missing (context, explanation, curation vs. just a feed)?

• Would a smaller, curated site/newsletter add anything for you, or does it feel redundant with what’s already out there?

• Would you ever visit or subscribe to something like that regularly, or is it a “look at once, forget” kind of thing?

Genuinely trying to figure out if this fills a real gap or if I’d just be adding noise to a space that’s already well served. All takes welcome, including “this already exists” or “nobody needs this.”

 

[Kwyet]

I mostly use this forum, but also books, YouTube, other forums, some facebook groups and websites. This forum and reading tank journals has been the most informative. If your website has some depth to it, I would gladly add it to my weekly reading. Go for it!

 

[Capraquaria]

I am always looking for more inspiration, and information. Youtube, and Instagram, and IAPLC contest books are probably my principle go-tos for visual inspiration. This forum and Dennis Wong's site are great for planting, tank chemistry, and technical advice. Youtube certainly caters heavily to the entry level aquascaper, almost to the point of oversaturation. Instagram is mostly eye-candy, with limited actual information. I certainly think there is room for more out there, especially at the intermediate to advanced level. I think there has been so much emphasis on getting people into the hobby, that there is a relative deficit of more intermediate to advanced aquascaping information (that's how I ended up here), so to visit a site regularly, I personally would be looking for more breadth and depth of information.

 

[CincyScaper]

Yes, i think there would be interest in such a site but it would be by highly limited group. In general, most Youtube/Instagram videos are in the business of generating lot of content to reach more and more people; with the idea of getting people started in the journey. But unfortunately, the more content one creates the depth of going into the build is quite lacking. I would much appreciate a site/channel that caters to very limited builds but focus a lot on the build/maintenance and such (good example is Anemone aquascaping). With a video, i think lot of effort is put into creating a pleasing video which although is nice and relaxing to watch is not the best way to get the details of the build. Josh Sim's channel was really nice in going into the depth of builds.

As such in addition to a video a website would actually be really nice. I love the 2 hr aquarist website, but it does not dwell that much into step by step aquascaping build.

If this is a labor of love i think it would definitely be much appreciated by people, but if your goal is to try and generate a business income i think it would be difficult.

Overall, yes go for it. I am sure that not only would you get a good number of subscribers from this forum but in addition i am sure if there is nice format to upload pics and such, i am sure many of the journal writers would contribute as well.

 

[Art]

Back in 2014, I did something similar to what I think you are considering. I called it the Aquascape Deconstructed series within ScapeFu. One of the aquascapes I tried to deconstruct was George Farmer's One-Pot Iwagumi.

I truly enjoyed learning from each aquascape I analyzed. However, I never got much feedback that anyone else did . At the time, the time investment versus value to the audience didn't seem to be there so I stopped.

I do think there is space and a need for someone to go deeper with aquascapes. Something that goes beyond just eye-candy is a helpful tool, in my opinion, for those looking to learn.

Good luck.

 

[scubadoobydoo]

As someone who is just breaking into the hobby, I would like to state a little bit of a rookie perspective that may be a little heavy on the anecdotal side. Please don't take this too much as a rant, even though it kind of is....

As I am going through things trying to get started, I find there are also a lot of questions that are kind of left unanswered or not easy to find an answer to. I will try and reply to your questions in a way that somewhat illustrates this:

• Where do you currently go for aquascape inspiration — Instagram, YouTube, forums, contest archives?

Currently I mostly get inspiration for some things from YouTube, forums, and most of all things around me.

• Does that already fully scratch the itch, or is there something missing (context, explanation, curation vs. just a feed)?

No this does not fully scratch the itch.

One of the issues run into often enough, I find inspiration from multiple places, or from somewhere unrelated to aquascaping. What is the resource to be able to blend these all together?

With the build I am hoping to actually have started in the next month is going to be inspired a lot by the PNW and what I grew up with. I watched this video of Homma giving a workshop at Green Aqua. He found the inspiration for the layout from going through the nearby woods and kind of just knew what plants to use for what. I struggle with this so resort to searching here, google, or reddit. That even has issues since when I look at a plant in one scape it may look completely different in another. I don't know what causes the difference in appearance. Is it different variations of the plants? Is it related to growing conditions (low-tech, high-tech, light, etc)? How do I change conditions to make it do what I want?

• Would a smaller, curated site/newsletter add anything for you, or does it feel redundant with what’s already out there?

For me site, over a newsletter (not that it wouldn't be bad to have a featured scape of the week/month that is presented almost as a newsletter). If it is curated, then I think there is potential to kind of sections things or build up on things. And it is not something that would be too much different from what this site offers, but something just a bit more organized from what I see here. I wish there was was a bit more of a gradient to how information in this area is disseminated. A lot of information feels like I'm going from the kiddy pool to the diving pool with no real in between (this could be on me). I also understand that doing this is more work. Having something where you can slowly start wading deeper into things I think would be nice.

Some of the journals will reach 200 replies in a little over a year and how people present the information is sometimes all over the place. By no means their fault, they don't know the future, they don't know when an algae outbreak is going to happen or a melt, and there is great discussion here around that. But it is hard as a newbie to sift through a lot of it. I know I can't prepare for everything myself, but with a lot of the scapes at some point having a more concise wrap up of everything. As of writing this, the most recently responded to journals have 54, 257, 18, 98, and 157 replies. A lot of media and content kind of stops at the setting up phase, then here for long running ones its a lot to sift through 257 replies.

• Would you ever visit or subscribe to something like that regularly, or is it a “look at once, forget” kind of thing?

Yes and maybe. Think while things are early and getting started yes I would. As for the frequency I would probably do it in spurts. Maybe is for the I don't know. If I truly love what becomes of this hobby that it becomes permanent for me then yes and no if it is something that dies away.


I am sorry for all of the rambling, this was partly something I wanted to get off my chest as a complaint for some things in the hobby It could also be there is something that does a little bit of this, but I haven't found it quite yet.