[TheStoriesOfTop7] Greener Where You Water It - Hiep Hong / United States - IAPLC 2018

The 4th place (Silver Prize) in the world ranking was awarded to "Greener Where You Water It" by Mr. Hiep Hong from the United States. While none of the judges had this layout as the Best Aquarium, five judges rated it among the top 10 layouts. It ranked as high as 2nd place on average but settled into 4th place. This is a typical Nature Aquarium layout with a concave composition. The color of the Tiger Lotus and its floating leaves created accents in the aquascape effectively. This layout as well as the Grand Prix layout, which follow Nature Aquarium basics faithfully, ranked high in the contest this time. This may be partly due to the fact that these standard Nature Aquarium layouts, in addition to achieving a high degree of accomplishment, stood out among the many entries that were influenced by recent high ranking layouts and therefore were rather similar to each other. While the trend of the times and the balance among entries including similarity often influence the results of contests, they seem to have worked favor- ably for these layouts. It is difficult to create a relaxing layout that one does not get tired of looking at even though it may not be flashy. That is the very quality and the charm of this layout

IAPLC 2018 Gallery - Look back history - World Ranking 0004 - Silver Prize

Greener Where You Water It

Author: Hiep Hong / United States

Aquarium Size/W120×D45×H45 (cm)

Aquatic Plants

Microsorum sp. "Narrow Leaf”

Eleocharis sp. "Minima"

Hydrocotyle tripartita

Nymphaea lotus "Red"

Anubias barteri var. nana

Fish & Invertebrates

Puntius tetrazona

AWARDS

World Ranking 0004 Silver Prize IAPLC 2018

Top Ten Place AGA 2018 Aquatic Garden 200~320L 

Comments

I was at work when my sister had messaged me that the post office had left a note on the door to go pick up a large envelope from "Aqua Design Amano". I thought to myself "well that is weird, every year I just receive a letter in the mail box, why do I need to go pick up my letter in a large envelope this year? So early this year too". I began to realize the possibility that I may have received an EMS envelope and was so excited I couldn't sleep that night. The next day, instead of eating lunch at work, I drove to the post office to pick up my envelope, I remember telling myself not to get too excited, just in case it was not from ADA and in case that it was not an EMS letter. When I finally saw the EMS letter in my hands, I was extremely overwhelmed with happiness. I waited until after work that day so that my girlfriend can be there with me to enjoy the moment when I saw my rank. I will never forget the feeling of accomplishment and gratitude when I saw my #4 ranking for the first time. This moment was also captured on video by my girlfriend, and it is a video I will cherish forever. I immediately mes- saged my friends and family to share the good news.

Comment from Karen Randall

I love this traditional “Nature Aquarium” tank. Good job!

Comment from Dennis Wong

Overall composition is pleasant. However condition of plants needs to be better overall; planting at the substrate level can be more polished and the handling of moss on wood hardscape can be handled with more finesse.