There's something special about viewing an aquarium from above.
This 60 × 60 × 30 cm open-top aquarium was designed around its unusually shallow dimensions, creating a viewing experience that feels more like looking into a natural pond than a traditional aquarium. The low profile gives you a completely different perspective, allowing the aquascape to be appreciated from above as well as from the front.
A key part of the design was allowing plants to grow beyond the water's surface. By removing the visual boundary between the aquarium and the space around it, the plants become part of the overall environment and create a more immersive, natural feel.
The plants also play an important role in the aquarium's ecosystem. The emersed growth is highly effective at absorbing nutrients such as ammonia and nitrates from the water, helping maintain excellent water quality without relying on frequent water changes.
In fact, despite how unusual it might sound, this aquarium only receives a few water changes each year. Most of the ongoing maintenance is simply topping up the water lost through evaporation.
The aquarium is intentionally low-tech, using a selection of slow-growing, easy-to-maintain aquatic plants, including various Cryptocoryne and Java ferns. The result is an aquarium that requires very little intervention — something that was particularly important for a busy young family.
When the aquarium was first established, the owners had very little experience keeping fish or planted aquariums. I spent the first few months working closely with them, providing guidance and helping them understand how to maintain the ecosystem.
Today, they look after the aquarium themselves.
And perhaps the best measure of the design is that four years later, it's still going strong.
A simple, low-maintenance aquarium designed not just to look good, but to become something the family could genuinely live with.
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