We start to accept applications for IAPLC 2024 from April 1. The deadline for submissions is May 31, and only online submissions through the official website is accepted. Some of guidelines and rules have been changed this year, so please check the official website before applying your work.
Award ceremony will be held for the first time in five years. Details of the award ceremony will be announced on the official website once it is confirmed, so please check our latest information.
The award ceremony for IAPLC 2024
Venue: Crowne Plaza - ANA Niigata
Date: November 23rd (Sat), 2024
IAPLC 2024
https://iaplc.com
IAPLC 2024 is started to accept applications now!
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IAPLC is the world’s largest aquascaping contest with the most total number of applications and participating countries every year.
Latest on News & Press
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Hong Kong at IAPLC 2026: Three Studies in Light, Layers and Visual Impact
A low timber ceiling, blue-toned terraces and converging planted diagonals create three visibly different aquariums. Hong Kong’s represented works at ranks 1–300 offer a compact study of visual impact beyond the season’s leading awards. Looking at them closely is more informative than treating the cutoff count as a verdict on an entire aquascaping community. -
Italy at IAPLC 2026: Calm Routes and More Dramatic Planted Frames
A clear route through planted banks can feel quiet; a coloured ridge beneath a dark frame can feel theatrical. The four Italian photographs selected for this study offer both experiences. Together, they make a useful contemporary comparison with an archive that once placed particular emphasis on calm, enduring-looking compositions. -
United States at IAPLC 2026: Four Distinct Readings of a Wooded Aquarium
The four American photographs selected here all contain important wood structures, yet they do not produce one uniform wooded scene. A broad canopy, a low diagonal, a fine-leaved light window and an exposed timber subject organise attention differently. That variation lets us discuss design diversity through specific decisions rather than a broad national label. -
Germany at IAPLC 2026: Four Ways to Balance Hardscape and Open Water
A dark wooded frame, a rocky valley, a brighter mixed scene and green-covered root contours make this German selection particularly useful for comparison. The photographs share an interest in separating materials from the water around them, but achieve it through different outlines and lighting relationships. -
Taiwan at IAPLC 2026: Planted Contours and Changing Routes into Depth
Dense foliage, planted wood ridges and a low central route create different senses of distance in this four-work selection. The photographs are particularly rewarding when viewed through changes in leaf shape and planting height. They offer a present-season comparison with an archive that once described both graceful composition and more contemporary experimentation. -
Thailand at IAPLC 2026: Surface Colour, Green Arches and Open Rockwork
Three Thai aquariums in the published Top 300 present contrasting visual priorities. MAGIC LEAVES makes the water surface a signature; another work carries a route beneath planted arches; a third exposes rock peaks against rounded greenery. This small group gives a useful reason to look beyond the first shared award photograph. -
Indonesia at IAPLC 2026: Forest Craft Through Four Different Frames
The four Indonesian works published at ranks 1–300 offer a compact comparison. A coloured surface canopy, a dominant trunk, a dense grove and a wood-and-rock opening all reward close attention. The small group makes it possible to examine every represented work in this range, while keeping the conclusions specific to this season and cutoff. -
Malaysia at IAPLC 2026: Wood, Plant Texture and the Visual Role of Fish
A bright gap between broad wood layers, a fine-leaved canopy and a conspicuous individual fish offer three different entrances to this Malaysian selection. The photographs invite attention to the space inhabited by fish as well as the hardscape around it. They also show why a creator’s reputation and a new aquarium’s visual decisions should be discussed separately. -
Brazil at IAPLC 2026: Rock Landscapes and Wood Beyond the Familiar Label
Enchanted Hills offers an immediately recognisable rock valley, with coloured planting and fish in bright water. Three other selected Brazilian photographs build their scenes around substantial wood. Seeing them together is a useful way to revisit a familiar label without asking individual creators to fit a single national recipe. -
Japan at IAPLC 2026: Nature Aquarium and Many Contemporary Visions
A pale path through hanging roots and a bright interval between exposed rocks can both make an aquarium feel spacious. Japan’s 2026 selection is rewarding because it places these different approaches beside richly planted foregrounds and coloured slopes. Six photographs offer a practical way to discuss variety within a familiar Nature Aquarium heritage. -
China at IAPLC 2026: How Layered Wood Creates Convincing Depth
The Grand Prize photograph gives this study an obvious first stop, but the comparison becomes richer when it reaches beyond the winner. Six selected aquariums show different ways of framing light with wood: unequal trunks, fine leaf curtains, successive arches and repeated vertical roots. Their interest lies in how each arrangement keeps a densely constructed scene readable. -
Vietnam at IAPLC 2026: Wood, Stone and a Broader Design Identity
Vietnam’s two leading 2026 awards both invite us into wooded environments. That is an interesting starting point for revisiting an archive which once associated the country strongly with stone. The most useful reading is not that one material has defeated the other. Six selected photographs show several ways of organising planted ground, open water and the route into a scene. -
CIAC 2026 Official Results Update: Rankings Extend to 119
The CIAC 2026 Aquascaping Category results have received an official update. A results sheet distributed by the organising committee on 14 October lists ranks 14–119, extending the ranking information available beyond the image cards previously covered by AquaLibs. -
CIAC 2026 Results: Beyond the Top 30, Ranks 31–70
The CIAC 2026 story continues beyond the Top 30. This AquaLibs report brings together the contest image cards labelled 31–70, introducing more creators and forty positions to explore. -
IAPLC 2026 Top 10: Ten Aquascapes, Ten Underwater Stories
Ten aquariums can draw us underwater in ten different ways. A luminous forest opening, a red surface canopy or an exposed rock valley changes where we look—and what we discover next. -
IAPLC 2026 Grand Prize Aquascape: What Makes Chuanwei Yu’s Design Convincing?
Chuanwei Yu’s 万物自然, the IAPLC 2026 Grand Prize aquascape, is immediately recognisable as a woodland scene. Its lasting interest lies in how that scene holds together. Large trunks establish the setting, finer roots connect its layers, planting softens the structure and fish make the spaces between the wood feel inhabited.
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