🐠 TOTM VOTE NOW - May 2024 Tank of the Month Contest (31 gal & larger)

POLL IS NOW CLOSED

Please Vote Now
We have 4 awesome tanks entered in Fishforums' May 2024 Tank of the Month contest featuring tanks sized at 31 gallon 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.

Please DO NOT post any comments about any specific entry in this thread...such posts will promptly be deleted. You are not allowed to update your entry picture or video once voting has started.

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 their 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

You are allowed to change your vote if you wish.
This poll will end on May 14th at 4:15 PM (ET)

I’ll start ( which seems like bad luck ) this is my South American “Tetra” tank… it’s a standard 55 gallon, and this one still retains a full under gravel filter, with a pair of power heads on the lift tubes, this a fine river gravel, with all worn rounded edges, as opposed to traditional gravel with lots of broken sharp edges… as well as a pair of Aquaclear 70 hob filters, on the tank… the decor in this tank includes 4 cast resin hollow logs, 2 of which are placed vertically to hide the lift tubes of the under gravel, and 3 natural pieces of wood, & there are regularly a couple Almond leaves working their way around in the tank… the aquatic plants in this tank are plastic, but there are 6 hang on planters, containing live terrestrial plants growing hydroponically in ceramic filter media… there are 2 - 10 inch air bars along the back wall, buried under the gravel with a line of 2 inch stones on top, to help keep them in place for the long haul… there is a full length 48" - 24-7 led light….with other grow lights in the space above, for the plants… this is a mature open topped tank, with about 18 inches of space for the plants to grow, and has 20 to 40 feet of vines growing, and hung on brass hooks screwed into layers on the walls above the tank and the lights are mounted on the ceiling… there is next to no algae on the glass surfaces ( I don’t clean it ) as there are so many plants above the tank, even though it has several bright lights, which are on most of the day, any glass cleaning is done by the one pleco, and one Oto. it’s built in to the wall, and has another tank on each side, and several below it in a work area behind the wall… there are 36 - 48 South American Tetras in the tank, including platinum Rummy Noses, Pristellas, and several varieties of Emperors, there are 6 dwarf Cichlids - 2 Electric Blue Rams, and 4 gold variety Apistos, along with a pair of near adult sibling Zebra Lace Angels… my Gold Nugget Pleco, and a large mature Zebra Oto, also call this tank home along with 4 Serbi Cory’s

the placard pictures shows more fish than the one above it, as the 1st picture is an early morning picture, & the placard picture is an afternoon picture...

This is my very first entry into TOTM and is our Fluval Roma 240 community tank.

We have kept fish for many years but only ever had smaller tanks, with 125l being the largest previously. We desperately wanted something larger and when circumstances finally allowed, we decided to go for it. This was set up in 2019 and has gone through some changes over the last few years, but this is the current look and this is my favourite. Some fish were transferred in from our previous smaller tanks and there are also some are new additions.
It runs on what came in the box when we bought it - a Fluval 307 external filter, a 300w heater and a 24W LED light strip, we haven't added anything else.

The substrate is a fine black gravel and is maybe a couple of inches deep, we have some smaller pieces of driftwood in there as well as a coconut hide and the very large "centrepiece" wood on the left side. We really wanted to keep this one completely natural, so the only artificial thing in there is the rock on the right, but the shrimp love that so it has to stay
The only thing we are missing, which I would really like, is a dark background just to finish it off. That is currently sitting in my shopping list on Ebay

Plants:
Java Ferns
Anubius
Limnophelia (we think!!)
Floating Wisteria

Stocking:
Pentazona Barbs x 9
Rummy Nose Tetras x 24
Emperor Tetras x 18
Neon Tetras x 12
Giant African Fan Shrimp x 4
Assassin Snails x 10

We also noticed recently that we had some fry, which have turned out to be little mini Emperor Tetras We were very shocked to see them but they appear to be doing well, they are getting bigger all the time and the other fish don't seem interested in them in the slightest anymore, so they are out in the open more and more.

Thank you for looking

This is my largest tank (55 gallons)



Tank Age: 2 years

Substrate: Small aquaruim gravel and fine sand.

Lights: NICREW ClassicLED Aquarium Light, Fish Tank Light with Extendable Brackets, White and Blue LEDs 48 inch
Light Dimmer: NICREW Single Channel LED Light Timer Pro

Plants

• Java Fern
• Salvinia Minima - Water Spangle
• Amazon Frogbit
• Anacharis
• Lucky Bamboo
• Christmas Moss
• Vallisneria
• Giant Hairgrass
• Tiger Lotus
• Dwarf Hairgrass
• Frogbit
• Duckweed
• Golden Pothos
• Anacharis

Livestock

• Corydoras aeneus (5)
• Zebra Long Fin Danio (3)
• GloFish Danio (1)
• GloFish Tetra (3)
• Golddust Lyretail Molly (2)
• Hemigrammus levis Tetra (1)
• Neon Tetra (3)
• Rummy Nose Tetra (3)
• Tiger Nerite Snail (19)
• Fancy Guppy [various types] (14) *Females
• Guppy Fry (10) *at least, maybe more
• Guppy Juvenile (26) *Females

Air pump filters: 2 Pawfly Large Aquarium Bio Sponge Filters
16 inch air stone bar
Air pump: Tetra Whisper for 40 - 60 gallon
Heater: 300W submersible Aquarium Heater

Ferts and Water Treatment

• API CO2 Booster 5ml once per day, or every other day
• Seachem Root Tabs
• Seachem Flourish 4.6ml once per week
• API Stress Zyme 20ml once per week

Water changes usually once per week, around 50% to 80%. I use API Ammo Lock in all the new water.

Feeding once per day (TetraMin Tropical Fish Food Flakes).
One time a week I'll feed frozen brine shrimp instead of flakes.

240 gallon Dutch style tank fully planted

I started this tank in end of the 2022 with the idea of doing a fully planted Dutch style tank. Wanted to use different color of the plant to add multiple layer like a painting.

Took a while for it to be fully established as it is now. But still takes some trimming to get it into a better shape. It's a never ending process. I'll share the processing video in other post later on. But it was truly a fun process to walk through and get it where it is today.

It runs on CO2 tank and one 3000 liter/hour canister filter with another back section filter built into the tank as well. I also added a little wave maker to make sure enough water flow through the entire tank as it is a large tank.

Substrate are a layer of vocanal rocks plus about 150-170 pounds of aqua soil.

Plants include a lot of different type of Rotalas. Bloody red. Rotala super green. Rotala orange juice and rotala yaoyai golden. Rotala whillichi. Rotala bonsai. Althenara reneickii. Altherna rose. Ludwigia repens. Ludiwigia super red repens mini. Ludwigia Cuba. S repens. Mermaid weed. Parrot feather. Golden nessaea. And several other plants
I pretty much collected them slowly through the built out process. That's also the reason it took over a year. But I enjoyed the do it slow process which allows me to think through what type of plants I need to create the final effect of the tank and also learn about each type of plants growing speed and final heights it can achieve.

It has about 50 neon tetra lives in the tank at the moment. I tend to not add too much fish as it is not easy to catch them in a fully planted tank like this one.

A lot of water change and trimming is the key to main the shape of the design. That's the pain but fun part of this hobby as well.

I hope you like the tank and enjoy this aquascapong hobby as well.

Thanks