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The purest experience. The most luxurious corner.
Does aquascaping require a dedicated fish room, elaborate equipment, or an entire display wall?
For German aquascaper Fabian Beck, now based in Berlin, the answer is no.
What fascinates him most is bringing a small piece of nature into the spaces where everyday life actually happens—a view to enjoy while preparing breakfast, relaxing on the sofa, or sitting quietly in an armchair.
Even his three cats seem drawn to it, occasionally trying to catch the mist drifting gently from the paludarium.
This is Fabian’s ONF Corner.
Not a carefully staged display, but a place where plants, water, light, and daily life naturally meet.
In an earlier interview with ONF, Fabian shared that several sports injuries eventually forced him to give up badminton.
Unexpectedly, that change opened the door to something entirely new.
Around 2017, he began exploring aquascaping.
What started with a few aquariums quickly became an essential part of his life.
At the time of our original conversation, Fabian was already caring for several aquascapes, paludariums, and small planted compositions at home. Maintaining plants, observing each ecosystem, and refining his layouts had become part of his everyday routine.
Years later, he continues to create.
From personal aquascapes to exhibitions, video productions, and collaborative projects, aquascaping has grown beyond a hobby into a way of understanding nature, composition, and the spaces we live in.
What gives a room a sense of life is not always more furniture. Sometimes, it is simply a well-cared-for piece of nature.
Fabian explains:
“I love aquascaping because creativity has no limits—whether in creating something new or facing new challenges. Every small ecosystem is unique, yet everything within it is deeply connected.”
That is also what makes aquascaping so compelling.
What Is Aquascaping?
Aquascaping is the art of composing aquatic plants, stones, driftwood, substrate, and aquatic life to create a natural and visually balanced landscape inside an aquarium.
It is more than simply planting aquatic plants in a tank.
Light, plant proportions, depth, materials, and the way plants continue to grow over time all influence the composition.
In that sense, an aquascape is never truly finished.
It is a living work that continues to evolve.
Fabian’s inspiration rarely comes from a single object.
More often, it comes from everyday experience.
Hiking through the Austrian Alps allows him to observe how rocks, plants, and terrain naturally form their own proportions.
Cycling through Berlin reveals another relationship between cities, people, architecture, and nature.
Aquascapers and creators he discovers on Instagram also offer different interpretations of the natural world.
These seemingly unrelated impressions may eventually find their way into his next aquascape.
A great aquascape does not necessarily recreate a forest. Sometimes, it recreates the way you remember experiencing nature.
We may see rocks, driftwood, aquatic plants, and water.
The creator may be remembering a mountain path, a quiet woodland, or the way sunlight once touched a stone during a journey.
For Fabian, the most valuable part of aquascaping is not forcing nature into a predetermined form.
Quite the opposite.
It is about spending time observing how plants grow, how water moves, and how a small ecosystem gradually finds its own balance.
As Fabian puts it:
“Learning from nature is the purest experience in my life.”
Perhaps that is also why his aquascapes no longer remain confined to an aquarium.
They have become part of the way he lives.
What Is an ONF Corner?
An ONF Corner is a living space where plants, aquascaping, light, and interior design come together naturally.
It does not require a large room.
An aquarium, a small glass planting, a single plant light, or even an empty wall can become a place where you reconnect with nature every day.
Fabian’s home is a perfect example.
One side of the apartment has two front-facing windows overlooking the houses and trees along the street.
On the other side is a clean white wall.
That wall eventually became one of Fabian and his husband’s favorite places in the apartment—their ONF Corner.
There is no excessive decoration.
The aquascape itself becomes the focal point.
Fabian still remembers seeing the ONF Flat Nano for the first time and immediately falling in love with its design.
He began using it across his Wabi-Kusa and glass plant arrangements.
With small-scale planted compositions, the visual presence of the lighting fixture matters.
A lamp that is too large can overpower the plants themselves. Insufficient light, on the other hand, may make it difficult to maintain healthy plant growth over time.
For Fabian, lighting is therefore not simply something added after the aquascape is finished.
Light is part of the composition itself.
Flat Nano works with his smaller Wabi-Kusa and glass plant displays, while Flat One+ plays a different role within the larger ONF Corner in his living room.
Against a clean white wall, the light, aquarium, and plants form a quiet yet distinctive visual focal point.
Plants require light for photosynthesis, which means stable and appropriate lighting is an important part of maintaining an aquarium containing aquatic plants.
However, choosing an aquarium light is not simply a matter of finding the brightest fixture.
Important considerations include:
In other words:
Plants do not simply need a “bright light.” They need the right light for their growing environment.
Once an aquascape enters the living room, there is another consideration as well:
Does the lighting fixture itself belong in the space?
Because once an aquarium becomes something you see every day, it is no longer only aquarium equipment.
It becomes part of the interior.
Fabian’s ONF Corner provides a useful answer.
1. Start With Where You Want to Experience It
Instead of asking only, “Where should I put the aquarium?” consider another question:
When do you want to see it?
While eating breakfast?
From the sofa?
Next to your reading chair?
Or immediately when you enter the room?
Fabian’s aquascape feels integrated into everyday life because it sits where he and his family naturally see it throughout the day.
2. Leave Room for Negative Space
Behind Fabian’s ONF Corner is a simple white wall.
That visual breathing room allows the plants, water, and light to take center stage without making the area feel like a collection of aquarium equipment.
Sometimes, making plants feel more integrated into a room requires fewer plants—and more space around them.
3. Treat Lighting as Part of Interior Design
Traditional aquarium equipment is often designed primarily around functionality.
But when aquascaping moves into the living room, the shape of the light, its stand, cables, proportions, and overall visual presence all affect the surrounding space.
A well-integrated home aquascape should not only look beautiful when the light is switched on.
Even when it is off, the equipment should still feel like it belongs.
4. Nature Does Not Require a Large Aquarium
The emotional impact of aquascaping is not determined by tank size.
A small glass planting, a Wabi-Kusa composition, or a fully developed aquarium can all become windows into the natural world.
A sense of nature comes from proportion, light, texture, and life—not square footage.
Fabian and his husband see their ONF Corner from different parts of their everyday life.
While preparing breakfast.
While resting on the sofa.
Or while sitting in the armchair on the other side of the room.
Their attention inevitably returns to the plants and aquascape.
Under the Flat One+, green leaves, water, and living organisms create a view that changes subtly from day to day.
Their three cats seem to appreciate it too.
When mist begins drifting from the paludarium, they occasionally stretch out a paw and try to catch the mysterious cloud floating through the air.
Perhaps this is what makes an ONF Corner so appealing.
Not because it is a perfectly arranged display.
But because nature has genuinely become part of everyday life.
True luxury may not be about owning more things. It may simply mean keeping one place in your everyday life where you can still experience nature.
From the landscapes of the Alps to a white wall inside a Berlin apartment, Fabian has gradually brought pieces of the natural world he encounters back into his everyday environment.
Aquascaping, for him, is therefore more than creating a beautiful aquarium.
It is a way of observing, understanding, and reconnecting with nature.
Perhaps we do not need an entire forest.
We may not even need a particularly large home.
We simply need to leave one corner open.
A place where plants continue to grow, light continues to change, and we occasionally remember to stop and look.
A small piece of nature can already feel like a luxury.
Explore more #ONFCorner stories and discover how aquascapers and plant lovers around the world bring plants, water, and light into everyday life.
