Vote Now! - May 2022 Tank of the Month Contest (31 gallons and larger)

PLEASE VOTE!
We have 8 awesome tanks entered in Fishforums' May 2022 Tank of the Month contest featuring tanks sized at 31 gallons and larger. View all the tanks and descriptions below and then go to poll at the top of this thread, click on your choice for TOTM, and then click the "Cast" button.

It’s best to view these awesome tanks on a computer screen or a tablet instead of a small phone screen.

Please Note:
Any attempt to influence competition results, other than by casting your allocated vote, is not permitted and may result in your entry being removed and / or further action being taken. You are not allowed to have friends or family join TFF for the main purpose of voting for you. This is a public poll so source of votes can be viewed.

Winner will be awarded a neat "Tank of the Month Winner" banner in his profile area and will be featured in a "TOTM Winner" thread for all to see and to comment on. Winner will also be added to our TOTM WALL OF FAME

This poll will end on May 15th at 5:00 PM ET (US)

The Avatar Floating Island Tank with Sand Fall

This is exciting, first time join the forum as well as the tank of the months contest. Hope you all enjoy my set up, it is still in the process of completion.
This is a set up i have been working on since Nov 2021. I anticipate to compelte the project in another 4 month or so with all plants goes in.
Tank size; 150 gallon.
Rock and wood feature: both corners and center feature are made out of dragon stone and drift wood. the center sand fall is glued with Ryuoh stone or some times called Seiryu Stone ( i have say that is the hardest part of the built, to super glue all the rocks together) I used a piece of crystal acrylic pipe to hold the sand fall dispenser rock. All of the floating island are made out of actual vocanal floating rock, though looks big, they are actually very light. once water are filled, they will natrually float up, so it doesnt add weight burden to the vines. for the vine, i just used dried up grape vine i collected a while ago to create the linkage between all the islands. those root look vines are from a type of banyan tree from south asia. (RongShu 榕树）is the name. it natrualy grow its root underneath the water so it wont go rotten later on.
Plants: right now, this month, i plan to complete the full carpet with monte carlo looking mini leafs, also i drilled a lot of holes on those floating island rock, filled in soil and added in some pink leafy plants. will glue tons of anubias nana petite, anubias bonzai, and blue buce plant onto those rocks next months when its ready to fill water, also the java moss will be used to cover more area of the drift wood, so far about 1/3 has gone into the tank. i also fille those crack of the rock with heart shaped grass, and horse shoe grass which are those bean sprout looking plants on the edge of the corner rock in the photo, depend on the spacing once all other plants are in next month, i may also add some S Repens into the unfilled area.
Filtration system: Forza 13 with UV light bulit in. Hopefully that will take care of the algae easily, ive had luck with using UV sterilizer in the other tanks i have. works amazing.
Lighting: Took me first month to build the stand and the lighting features, the lighting, i had to do some soldering work myself to add full spetrum led to the track lighting system, ive done that in the past, works pretty well price wise. i mean it is not cheap, but i like the look of it better than the same price range lighting from the store.
CO2 system: consider this will be a full planted tank, so i did set up a CO2 system for it.
WIFI CONTROL: like all my other tanks, i have everything from lighting, to airpump , CO2, filtration system and heater all connected to WIFI based controlling system and linked with Alexa and google home. so these aquarium will be Voice and App controllable. The only thing i have not figured out is the automatic water change function. i know in salt water tank they use the system, but im trying to figure out an cheaper way to achieve the same function, but so far, i guess it still requires me mannually do it on a weekly basis LOL
Fish Stock: I plan to place about 10 Discus fish of different kind, and as many neon tetra as possible. thinking maybe 80-100. One pleco or algae eater to help cleaning the tank. thats it, i want to keep it very simple on the fish. Im afraid too many fish will not be good for the plants in the tank.

This is it, i am still working on it, and attached photo are how it currently look. Please let me know if you have good sugguestions or questions. i am new into this aquascaping since covid started 2 years ago, and i have to say this hobby is a bit addicting, i have developed from 1 tank to 5 tanks now, and still have new ideas from time to time. So i am always interested to learn new tricks from people . Again, i hope you all enjoy this hobby.

Thanks
Best Regard
Jason L

Tiger Barb Tank

This is is 731l (193 US gallon) Tiger Barb tank.

Tank:
The tank was built to spec for my by Ornamental Aquaculture in the UK to fit the space in one end of my garden office. Took two attempts as they dropped the first one taking it off of the delivery van, cracking one corner... Just before Christmas holidays and as Covid picked up again. So a bit of a delay while they rebuilt it and arranged a new delivery but got there in the end. 179cm length, 67cm height, 61cm depth.

Equipment:

The tank is running a Fluval FX6, with a powerhead at the right side for a more even water flow across the front of the tank. There are two Fluval Aquasky lights up top on a timed cycle with gradual fade in/out at the start of the day. Neither are on full light at any time. There's an air pump running four air stones on a timer and co2 injection during lights on hours, approximately.

Heaters are two Eheim Jager 300w.

Stocking:

This is predominantly a Tiger Barb tank, with approximately 60 tiger barbs of the "normal", green and albino varieties.

There's also a rainbow shark, 12 cherry barbs, a bristlenose pleco and a handful of nerite snails.

Plants and hardscape:

There's a large piece of corbo root on the left hand side, which is hollow and creates a cave the rainbow shark, both inside and beneath it's "legs". Another piece of corbo root on the right is largely hidden by plants but is a hollow log and creates a large second cave.

Along much at the rear of the tank are a large number of Amazon Swords, particularly on the left. On the far right at the rear is. vallisneria spiralis tiger, which is the long grass reaching to the top and then drifting along the surface in the current. There's also a Aponogeton Ulvaceus at the rear right, which is a bulb plant. That flowered for several weeks, sending up long shoots that found the small spaces in the cover glass and sent up purple flowers above the tank. It's entered a dormant phase at the moment, so they've retreated.

Various varieties of Java fern are attached to the hardscape, both the wood and the large pieces of dragonstone throughout the tank.

There are a number of small crypts dotted around the shady areas and in the centre is the red lotus lily with the beautiful large red leaves which spread out and provide shade.

The floating plants at the top left are water sprite.

Hope you all enjoy.

I have four tanks which meet the requirements of this month's competition so was a real struggle choosing which one to put forward

African cichlid tank -

This is my African cichlid tank, I have 49 African cichlids such as orange top hongi, strawberry peacock, yellow lab, OB, etc. I love this tank, it’s my pride and joy. Fishkeeping is my only hobby I have, currently I care for my wife after her breast cancer diagnosis so I’m in the house most of the time and it keeps me busy. Also keeps her happy looking at the fish

Size -

190l/ 50g juwel trigon

Age of setup -

I first set my tank up in February this year!

Fish stocking -

49 African cichlids e.g. OB, yellow lab, strawberry peacock etc

5 catfish e.g. 2 x pictus, Bumblebee catfish, synodontis, bristlenose plec

Water parameters -

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
Ph - 7.4
Kh - 4 (still in need of buffering I know )
Gh - 15 (again still needs little bit more buffering)

Ferts used -

No live plants as they would destroy them. Looking at maybe getting some floating plant though

Lighting -

2 x RGB LED lighting bars. I only ever use the white light through the day, then a very dim blue on a night

Filtration type -

1 x fluval 207 canister filter
1 x allpondsollutions 1000ef canister filter

Inside each canister I have a variety of different types of sponge, ceramic rings, plastic biological media, crushed coral and filter floss

Aeration -

I have 2 x 15cm air bars running from a dual output air pump.

Tank maintenance procedures -

At least 30% water change every week along with glass clean if necessary and gravel siphon . Liquid water testing every week. Dip tests throughout the week. Filter floss is changed every 10-14 days and full filter clean every 2-3 months.

Feeding schedules -

I feed my fish a variety of food every day with fasting days on Thursday and Sunday. Frozen food every 4 days. They get -

Dried -
Fine cichlid pellet
Trio cichlid pellet
Duo cichlid pellet
Malawi stick
Cichlid stick
Bug bites
Large cichlid pellet
Cichlid flake
Catfish pellet
Algae wafer

Frozen -
Bloodworm
Brine shrimp
Mysis shrimp
Malawi food
Spinach


Etc -

Fishkeeping is pretty much my life at the moment and (although I’m not very good at it and also very new + still learning) it keeps me happy I hope you all like my tank as much as me and my wife do

Thanks for reading

This my 150 gallon open top aquarium, which I setup in November of last year. I do everything naturally, so this tank only uses natural light from the window (I have a small LED over the Amazon sword plants as a boost for them).

It has two 1000l/hr. Hailea internal filter with only the coarse sponges in them as the filter medium; these are used mainly just to move water. It also has an air driven under gravel filter, which I call passive as it moves around 30 l/hr. There is an air curtain on the back wall of the tank to discourage algae.

On this tank a do 25% water changes weekly, using rainwater. I never temperature match and use an auto fill system attached to the outdoor tanks.

Plants: I use a lot of fast-growing stemmed plants, Hygrophilas, Ludwigias, Ambulia, Wisteria, then there is also Vallisneria, crypts and Amazon plants and narrow leaf Java fern.

Fish: 16 x Black Phantom Tetras (I started with 10 but they spawned), 6x White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 2x Royal Whiptail Catfish and 5 Turquoise Discus. They are feed flake food, algae discs, venison and mosquito larvae.

The top of the tank has Orchid and carnivorous plants growing of different sorts.

This is a completely natural system, so I use no chemicals at all in the tank, no fertilizer, no dechlorinator, nothing. The tank has a constant pH and hardness due to the fact I use a natural river gravel, and driftwood to buffer the tank. I never vacuum the base of this tank and I let the plants deal with the fish waste, with the under-gravel filter working it pulls the waste into the substrate where it is used by the plants. I have a large volume of plants in the tank, so I don’t have an algae problem, the water is well oxygenated.

This tank can be viewed in my detail on my journal.

Here is my 36G larger tank, it's a very old Cleair acrylic tank which I have had running since I cant remember! Really I cant believe it still stands but I truly love it. I cant really say too much about about it as its very basic to be honest, it runs with a 16lph power head and an overhead filter system containing 4 levels of graded various filtering pond foams.
It has sand substrate and silk planting, easier to manage as I dont have inspector Gadget arms haha.... the only live plants in this one are Java, they look after themselves.
I have Neons and minnows, loach and swords. I Water change weekly without fail, about 30% and feed once a day live food or frozen mixed, some days flake or even veg, they love it all.

I see an array of wonderful aquariums on this site and wish everyone well in this light hearted bit of fun!

Well this is but a work in progress but we seem to need more entries.

Tank - just an off the shelf 75 gallon. I believe it was made by Aqueon, 48" X 18" X 21" are the dimensions.

Filtration - Seachem/Sicce Tidal 110 with variable flow from 90 GPH to 450 GPH.

Heating/Lighting - Orlushy 300 watt heater with remote sensor and wall mounted LCD readout. Fluval hood and LED lighting.

Additional Aeration - Hygger air pump with simple 4" air stone.

Plants/Hardscape - Several Amazon swords, java ferns, water wisteria, water sprite and others I've forgotten. A few pieces of driftwood and one limestone rock.

Substrate - a mix of Seachem Flourite and Flourite sand. That's a work in progress in itself.

Current Stocking - 5 juvenile angels, 8 yoyo loaches, 4 young clown loaches, 7 cories, 1 Bolivian ram and one clown pleco.

Someday the clown loaches must go, but I think that'll take awhile.

Water Parameters - 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, < 10 nitrates. Very soft water and a pH of 6.6-6.8.

Size - 125 gallon with DIY bamboo background.

Age of setup -1 year and 3 months in new home.

Fish stocking - 2 snakeskin gourami, 2 moonlight gourami, 1 gold gourami, 1 banded gourami, 1 adult and 5 juvi SAE, 13 red panda barbs, 9 harlequin rasbora, 1 watermellon royal pleco, 1 each L190/170 Royal plecos, 2 BN plecos, 5 adult and 2 juvi Yoyo loaches, 7 pavo eels and 4 angelfish.

Plant Stocking - Assortment of crypts; wendtii, tropica, undulata, and balansae. Some apanogeton ulvaceous and crispus, tiger lotus and some sword plants. Floating in the left corner is some Pogostamen stellaris

Water parameters - Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate between 10-20

Ferts used - None/natural (lol).

Lighting - two LED grow bulbs in two clamp domes, two other lights I honestly cannot remember the brand .

Filtration type -normally one FX4 and a Tidal 75, due to current issues with keeping a cycle I have another FX4 hooked up to the tank. Also has a corner Matten filter from Swiss Tropicals.

Substrate - Mainly Red Flint medium sand (like a fine gravel) topped with red Eco Complete.

Aeration - No extra.

Tank maintenance procedures - Weekly I do a 50-80% WC with a gravel cleaning due to the royal plecos rasping wood. Every 3rd month I clean the FX4 filter, every month I rinse out the Tidal media. Don't do much algae cleaning as the gouramis and SAE love to graze on any algae on glass or on the background.

Feeding schedules - Fish are fed daily with a combination of flakes, crumbles, sicks and wafers geared toward herbivores. Once to twice a week they will receive earthworms for the pavo eels and Repashy for the loaches and plecos. Also the tank will get fresh peppers, zucchini, canteloupe or watermellon which are mainly enjoyed by the plecos but grazed on by all other inhabitans bu the eels. Whenever available as a by-product of other tanks infestation, the tank will get live duckweed which the gouramis eat with gusto.

This is my Ciano Emotions pro 120 tank with approx 235 litres capacity . Its running the LED lighting and internal filter which came as part of the package. I'm also running an external Tetra EX filter. The substrate is Unipac Nyasa sand, which the Corydoras seem to love.


Plants are all from the tropica 1-2 grow range, so all grown from lab specimens, which arrived as tiny plants. Only fertilisation is the use of Easy Life Root Sticks which I add into the gravel and no additional CO2. Although I have added a small CaCO3 rock to add carbonate ions to the water.
As follows:
Myriophyllum 'Guyana'
Rotala rotundifolia
Rotala wallichi
2x Bucephalandra sp.
And one very successful Echinodorus radicans

Fish in the tank :
Black emperor tetra
Flame tetra
January tetra
Black neon tetra
X Ray tetra- normal and albino
Honey gourami
Otto
Skunk corydoras
Albino bronze corydoras
Black venezuelan corydoras
Smudge spot corydoras

Most of the fish are lively and active, although it's a treat if we see more than one smudge spot (there are 6) as they spend most of their day hiding in the plants.

The tank has soft water, carbonate hardness 2dkh, pH 6-7 and has been set up for about 9 months. Aim to do a weekly water change of about 20%

EDITED as note wasn't legible on initial upload