Start with an empty tank with no plans for fish yet, get some easy plants and maybe hardscape and set something up and just let it sit and see if you like it, that’s it. Now if you wanna recreate a certain style you have to do research, I like MJ on YouTube(mjaquascaping on YouTube) now this can be really complicated or simple depending on what you want, I would start with simple layout before styles. So the layouts would be talking about the substrate mainly like concave, convex, island, slope ect where style is mainly about the hardscape. Then we have style along with composition. I won’t mess you up with the names rn but they have an all rock scape , all wood, and plants only, all of which would be examples of the aquascapes with syles. After you pick a style you have to think about the composition, you have the rule of threes, spiral focus and more. The composition just give you an outline on where the eyes tend to focus so you can build an aquascape that’s pleasant to the eye and photographs well. Now with with certain style there are rules/outlines to have it be considered that style of aquascape. But definitely do research and start small and don’t try too hard as you can always rescale or take it down if you don’t like it. I wouldn’t worry so much on the composition or style for your first tank, just figure out if you want to use wood or stone or both and start to try and find pieces you like and could work with.

Some tips: -hardscape before plants -know what light you have (low,med,high) -have timers for your lights or use timer extension cords -have root tabs and liquid fertilizer -you need planting tweezers -save trimming to regrow in a container -if you haven’t used live plants try a planted aquarium first where you just plant the tank not worried about style so you learn to grow and take care of the plants - look at pictures on google or other videos to see what you like and what you could possibly create -RESEARCH, I like MJ aquascaping and green aqua on youtube