Hi Pat, sorry for the delay in replying. I went overseas on holiday
I've had tropical tanks for 35+ years but in the last 8 or so years made the venture into properly planted tanks. I'm lucky that here in NZ there is an aquatic society ,of which I have just finished as secretary and treasurer, which is full of plant and aquascape enthusiasts and if you ask a question there are a multitude of people willing to help out
Currently I am working on my anubias species and that is interesting as we get fairly generic names of plants here - anubias because I have a magazine article to write.
When starting out I found google was great and then used a forum to get more indepth advice. I've watched numerous Amano clips on youtube also regarding aquascaping.
Bowfronts are fine, it just depends on the look you want