Aquascaping design principles
My principles of designing a nature aquarium in priority in my humble opinion are:
Nature: does the scape reflects and resembles a slice of nature? Does it look artificial? Of course, all aquariums are man-made and lighting, filtering, heating and CO2 pressuring are necessary. Choices of hardscapes and plants are down to us too. But there can be two extremes, one is plastic pirate boats and the other is diorama that hardscapes and miniature plants are arranged such that the scape resembles a landscape and doesn't look like anything underwater.
This is a very narrow principle I know. Unfortunately, I think most of the Top 100 IAPLC contests winners are of some forms of diorama. So it is personal, but in my opinion, when I look at a tank, I would like to enjoy a simple plant, or a stunning fish as part of the beautiful creation, which is wonderful and what get me into the hobby. I would enjoy much less of a tank which is just a collection of rocks and wood to show off some technique and creativity and can only be viewed in certain angle and the tank exists for a short period of time for contest only. Therefore, for me, aquascaping is not to create something so unique that is enviable and contest-worthy, but to open a window at home to enjoy nature.
Maintenance and cost: the hobby itself drains money and time, to be frank. It is worth it to invest good light, filtration and CO2 kits for long benefits. I am happy to do feeding, water change, dosing, cleaning and trimming, all things necessary to maintain a healthy tank. And some of the routine I find is actually very relaxing. However, as life has priorities, I should limit myself to 2 hours a week to maintaining a tank. One hour is for water change and the other for all other maintenance and nothing more. If a scape is too complicated and requires lots of effort to tune and tweak, then in my opinion it is too much. Of course, I understand during the set up, for the first few months, it takes more to establish a new tank.
For example, I think open-rim tanks are really nice as they allow nice viewing from the top. However, these tanks are disastrous as they evaporate so much that they need constant top ups and cause condensation and humidity.
Beauty: a scape without doubt should a piece of work that inspires and creates a space for enjoyment.
Creativity: the process of creating a scape is enjoyable but also stressful as many things can go wrong. It is a good thing that a scape can show off my creativity but this is not the main thing, given that the most of time of having a tank is on display and being maintained not being created. Rescaping shouldn't be more frequent than once a year.