Aquascaping for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Welcome to the World of Aquascaping!

We'll walk you through it step by step and show you exactly how an aquascape comes together

60-P aquascape with colorful groups of red and green plants — A 60-P layout with colorful plant groups

We Love Aquascaping!

Aquascaping brings together the fascination of the aquarium hobby with creativity and a real feel for nature. Plants, rocks, wood, and water come together to form miniature underwater landscapes that feel alive and reflect your own personal style. That's exactly what makes aquascaping so special to us.

Getting started can feel a little overwhelming at first, though: Which plants go well together? How do I plan my layout? And how much soil or hardscape do I actually need? This tutorial is here to make those first steps easier. We'll walk you through the fundamentals of aquarium design, step by step and in the order you'd typically tackle them — from your first idea all the way to a finished aquascape. With Scape It, you can plan and visualize your layout as you go. Because aquascaping shouldn't be derailed by early hurdles — above all, it should be fun!

60-P aquascape with red and green plants, hardscape, and a light gravel substrate — The 60-P format offers a balanced ratio of width to height

Step 1: Choosing the Right Tank Size

Choosing the right aquarium is the first step on the way to your aquascape. The size and shape of your tank determine not just which plants and materials you can use, but also how your finished layout will feel. Shallow tanks are great for wide, panoramic landscapes, while taller formats give you more room for large plants or striking hardscape structures.

For this tutorial, we've gone with a shallow tank: the ADA 45-F, measuring 45 × 27 × 20 cm. This format gives us a solid foundation for a harmonious layout with plenty of depth, while keeping each design step easy to follow.

Our tip for beginners: If you want to focus on the design first and aren't keeping any animals yet, smaller tanks between roughly 20 and 60 liters make a great starting point. They stay manageable, need less material, and make it much easier to try out your first ideas and build up experience.

Shallow aquascape layout with driftwood and grass-like plants in a panoramic style — Shallow tanks lend themselves well to panoramic layouts

Black aquasoil substrate rising toward the back in an empty aquarium — A substrate of black aquasoil, rising toward the back

Step 2: Choosing and Shaping the Substrate

The substrate isn't just the foundation for your plants' growth — it's also a key design element in its own right. For our layout, we're using black aquasoil, a classic substrate for planted aquariums. It contains organic and mineral components that create great conditions for strong plant growth.

It's also worth putting some thought into how you shape the substrate. For our layout, we let it rise from front to back. That difference in height adds extra depth: the back of the tank visually recedes into the distance, making the aquarium feel bigger and more spacious. Especially in shallow tanks, this simple technique can make a big difference.

Our tip: If you want to build the soil up noticeably higher than around 5 cm in some areas, try using a porous material like lava rock underneath. That way, you can build up volume exactly where you need it without going through huge amounts of aquasoil. Just spread the soil on top afterward and shape it the way you want.

Empty aquarium with a white-to-blue background sheet in the Scape It editor — In the Scape It editor, you can easily try out different background sheets

Step 3: Choosing the Right Background Sheet

A background sheet can change the look of your aquascape more than you'd expect. It creates a calm backdrop behind the layout, can add extra depth, and shapes the overall mood of the aquarium. It's also a simple way to make cables, tubing, and other equipment behind the tank visually disappear.

Besides classic single-color sheets, there are also illuminated backgrounds that let you create special lighting moods and eye-catching effects. For your first layout, though, we'd recommend keeping things simple. That's why we're using a white background sheet here. The bright background provides a calm contrast to the hardscape and plants, letting the fresh greens really pop. Especially with a heavily planted layout, a light background can also help individual plants and structures stand out more clearly.

Hornwood branches forming the hardscape structure in an empty aquarium — Building the basic structure with Hornwood

Hornwood hardscape with golden ratio guidelines in the Scape It editor — The golden ratio helps you place natural focal points in your layout

Step 4: Designing the Hardscape

The hardscape forms the backbone of your aquascape and has a huge influence on how the finished layout will look. For our example, we're using only Hornwood branches and skipping rocks entirely, which gives us a calm, harmonious overall picture. The dense, branching wood structure forms the main body of the layout, while a few individual branches reach above the waterline and give it a natural, dynamic silhouette.

When placing the hardscape, guidelines help us build the composition deliberately and set key focal points. Among other things, we use the golden ratio as a reference — a popular design rule that can help you develop a layout that's both balanced and engaging.

Tip: In Scape It, you can use various guidelines and tools to plan your layout precisely and experiment with different compositions. You can find out more about our planning tools here.

You can learn more about design principles like the golden ratio in our Aquarium Layout Guide.

Hornwood hardscape with Eleocharis acicularis planted in the background — In the background: Eleocharis acicularis

Hydrocotyle verticillata as a midground plant between Hornwood branches — As a midground plant: Hydrocotyle verticillata

Step 5: Choosing and Planting Your Plants

Especially when you're just starting out, it helps to work with a manageable number of plant species. Three to five species are often enough to create a layout that's both harmonious and varied. Similar plant shapes can provide a calm base structure, while a contrasting species adds deliberate accents. In our layout, the two grass-like Eleocharis species form the base, while Hydrocotyle verticillata, with its round leaves, provides an exciting contrast and a real eye-catcher.

When planting, we work from back to front: first the taller background plants, then the midground and foreground plants. In our layout, we start by placing Eleocharis acicularis in the background, then add Hydrocotyle verticillata between the branches in the midground. Finally, we fill in the remaining open areas with the carpeting plant Eleocharis pusilla.

And with that, our aquascape is fully planned — step by step, a first idea has grown into a complete layout.

Finished aquascape layout with Eleocharis pusilla as a foreground carpet — As a foreground carpet: Eleocharis pusilla

Finished aquascape layout with a turquoise background sheet — The same aquascape with a turquoise background sheet

Scape It Tip: Try Out Variations

The perfect layout rarely comes together on the first try. Even small changes can noticeably transform how your tank looks and feels. Try a different background, swap out a plant species, or shift a hardscape element — sometimes it's exactly the small changes that make all the difference.

With Scape It, you can try out different variations quickly and effortlessly, without having to rebuild your actual aquarium every time. Compare different ideas, discover new combinations, and find out which design best suits you and your style.

Scape It is here to make your start in aquascaping easier, while still leaving plenty of room for your own ideas. So go ahead: experiment, design, and most of all, have fun scaping!

Aquascape variation with Cryptocoryne albida 'Brown' as the midground plant instead of Hydrocotyle verticillata — A variation with Cryptocoryne albida 'Brown' in the midground

Answers to Your Questions

Aquascaping is the art of designing underwater landscapes inside an aquarium. Plants, rocks, wood, and other natural materials are deliberately combined to create a harmonious overall picture. Much like landscape design or gardening, it's not just about caring for plants — it's also about composition, shapes, colors, and perspective. The goal is an aquarium that feels like a miniature natural landscape — anything from a dense underwater forest to a minimalist layout with clean, clear structures.

Yes, aquascaping is absolutely suitable for beginners. That said, planning a layout and picturing how materials and plants will actually look inside the aquarium can be challenging at first. With good preparation, simple design concepts, and the right choice of plants, getting started becomes a lot easier. Tools like Scape It let you visualize your ideas in advance and try out different options before you ever set up the tank.

The best way to start aquascaping is with good planning. First, think about which aquarium you want to use, what design concept you'd like to pursue, and which plants and materials fit your layout. A typical process looks like this: choose your tank size, prepare the substrate, decide on a background, design the hardscape, and then add the plants. With a simple layout and just a few plant species, you can gain your first experience and work your way up to more complex aquascapes step by step.

No, you don't need to be an artist to plan an aquascape. Many beginners find it hard to picture a finished underwater landscape just from a list of materials. With Scape It, you can plan your layout digitally, place plants and hardscape, and try out different variations — no sketching or drawing skills required. That way, you can compare different ideas and find out which design actually works best.

For beginners who want to focus on designing an aquascape first, smaller tanks between roughly 20 and 60 liters are often a great fit. They're manageable, need less material, and make it easier to bring design ideas to life. If you're also planning to keep fish or other animals, different recommendations apply: larger aquariums offer more stable water parameters and more living space. But for a pure aquascaping project without any animals, a smaller tank can be the ideal way to start.

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Aquascaping Made Easy