I just grabbed my camera and went out to the fishroom to try to help with the tank of the month contest. I'll never win, but that's not the point. 2 entries seems sad. I walked along along the tanks, and gave up. I don't have one single tank that is form over function. They are all either breeder or growout set ups. I have hundreds of Vallisneria, a growing number of Crypts and a lot of Anubias, java fern etc. They're there as boundary blockers, fry food sources, shade... when I set the tanks up 3 years ago, I used perspective lines and some scaping tricks, but growth becomes a woods and not a garden.
I'll look at a dwarf Cichlid cave and place it where I think it's ideal in terms of water flow and food sources for babies. Rocks go in for sightline management so a fish looking out of the cave door can't claim the whole substrate. The anarchic looking tanks are set up carefully, but not for beauty. The fish always the main show for me, and the tank is just a means to a beginning.
If I take a picture, it's just Valls too close to the front, apparently haphazard rock formations, driftwood propped into place to modify water flow - but the glass is clean!
I have two temperate and one tropical pitcher plant on the higher art of my bog 40, and they are doing surprisingly well, But even there - from inside the fishroom, they look like nothing. Go outside and look in the south facing window, and there's a very neat line of pitcher traps hanging over the back of the tank.
