[TheStoriesOfTop7] Storming - Nguyen Minh Toan / VietNam - IAPLC 2021

"Storming" by Mr. Minh Toan Nguyen from Vietnam won the Gold Prize and is ranked No.2 in the world rankings, scoring a total of 1,372 points. 6 out of 10 judges selected this work as one of their individual top 10 works, and Mr. Yusuke Homma, a judge from Japan chose it as his Best Aquarium.

IAPLC 2021 World Ranking Announcement - World Ranking 0002 - Gold Prize

Storming 

Author: Nguyen Minh Toan / VietNam

Aquarium Size/W120 × D50 × H50(cm)

Aquatic Plants

Micranthemum sp. "Monte Carlo"

Hemianthus callitrichoides "Cuba"

Hemianthus micranthemoides

Rotala rotundifolia "Green"

Rotala rotundifolia "Red"

Hottonia palustris

Cabomba caroliniana

Taxiphyllum alternans

Fissidens splachnobryoides

Fissidens sp. fontanus

Taxiphyllum barbieri

Vesicularia ferriei

Taxiphyllum sp. "Flame"

Riccardia sp. "Chamedryfolia"

Elatine Hexandra

Eleocharis acicularis

Marsilea hirsuta

Echinodorus Tenellus

Eriocaulon sp. "Vietnam"

Anubias barteri var. nana "Petite"

Anubias barteri var. nana "Pinto"

Anubias barteri var. glabra "Minina"

Bolbitis heudelotii

Fish & Invertebrates

Nematobrycon palmeri

Hyphessobrycon amandae

AWARDS

World Ranking 0002 Gold Prize IAPLC 2021

Comments

Honestly, until now, I still feel nervous and happy. This year, I didnt have any target of winning, I just wanted to try a simple layout but can show how familiar the nature can be, as well as the diversity of natural ecosystems of rivers and streams in the central Vietnam. I wanted to use the beauty of materials, the beauty of plants to touch people's hearts. This year, the number of tanks is the highest in the 20 year history of IAPLC, I feel very lucky because my tank was highly appreciated by many judges. This is my fourth year participating in IAPLC, but this is the first time my tank was chosen to be "Best Aquarium" by a judge. This is the biggest honor to me until now. This will be my motivation to keep working and creating new tanks in the future. Nature Aquarium and IAPLC are now indispensable spiritual food for me.

Comment from Mr. Yusuke Homma (Japan)

I had such a hard time deciding until the very end, but I decided to give my Best Aquarium to "Storming". The composition with depth and detail oriented planting are truly amazing. However, the deciding factor was that as the title "Storming" indicates, a scene where you can feel a story of how fish are swimming as if they are running away from the storm, is beautifully expressed as an aquascape. Although a lot of people who have devised a way to create ripples on the water surface, I was surprised by the technique for expressing a storm on the water surface. And nowadays, there are many works that don't feel right because of bright shadowy areas in them. However, the use of shadows in this work is great, and the photo- graph looks sharp because there is a contrast in the composition.