Late to the show as usual...went and tried to vote for ya Avi but apparently had never gotten around to registering there. So I can't vote until confirmed, presumably in the morning. Will vote then if it's still open.
Meanwhile you are at this point kicking a$$ and leading by a good margin. Unless one of the other contestants gets Diebold to count the votes it looks like you've got it. Let me be the first to say "congrats" albeit somewhat prematurely.
May it set a new trend--or at least kick holes in the "conventional wisdom"--for the winner of this prestigious contest to do it with a planted tank. This notion that discus can only be "properly" raised (said with nose in air and teacup in hand, pinky finger extended in aristocratic snobbery) in a boring bare-bottom, bare-everything tank is long overdue for revision.
It goes against everything that has been learned about proper captive keeping of any living thing: they do best when in an environment as close as possible to the one they occupy in nature. Zookeepers have known this for years. A sterile bare box is....well, not that. Your tank was beautiful and I choose to believe that your fish grew better, at least in part, because they were mentally occupied and more comfortable and--dare I say it?--happier than the others. Not that my opinion matters, the results speak for themselves.
Huzzah and excellent job.