🐠 TOTM Abaddon - September 2025 Tank of the Month Winner

[connorlindeman]

We have a winner in Tropical Fish Forums'
September Tank of the Month Contest

We had 9 awesome tanks entered in this month's TOTM contest.
It was a very close contest, but only one could win...
And the winner is.......

​

@Abaddon​

Let's all congratulate them​

Here is my little *slightly overgrown* jungle gem It's only 2 months old, so it's still figuring itself out but I'm quite happy with it so far. The plants are quite healthy & pearling even though I don't supplement with CO2.
Size: ~8 gallons
Filtration: small internal turbine filter (~400l/h) + dense sponge, no aeration
Lighting: single LED lamp (rgb, 1050 lumens), 7 hrs a day
Substrate: 100% porous lava rock (very thin layer since the tank is mounted on the wall & I wanted to reduce the weight as much as possible while retaining a large surface area for the biofilter)
Decor: 2 pieces of driftwood (completely taken over by the plants at this point, but I promise they're there)
Plants: anubias, Java fern, hornwort, an assortment of mosses, water sprite, water wisteria, salvinia, 2 stray ludwigia stems that have actually decided to put down roots and grow, marimo balls, bucephalandra, pearl weed, bolbitis.
Inhabitants: a small group of (mostly juvenile) barred topminnows (Quintana atrizona), White Pearl shrimp & pink ramshorns. Lots of hitchhiker snails too, plus some seed shrimp.
Maintenance: ~30% WC every week, daily fertilizer (microelements + potassium & magnesium), feeding 2 x day (powdered dry foods, micro worms, frozen cyclops, freeze-dried daphnia, baby brine shrimp). Once a week I supplement with a shrimp stick that everyone nibbles on (it has bee pollen, peppermint and a variety of plant & algae extracts).

 

[connorlindeman]

Congrats @Abaddon for the win. Beautiful tank. Great job!
In second place, are @connorlindeman and @Mudge.
In third place is @MattW with his fry and shrimp tank.

We are currently accepting entries for our September Pet of the Month contest. If you have a pet other then fish, ENTER NOW.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

Congrats @Abaddon

 

[MattW]

Congrats!

 

[Abaddon]

Tysm! There were so many great entries that I honestly didn't think mine would even get noticed, but of course I'm happy it did Aaand of course the tank has now started to develop a bit of a hair algae problem, so I guess Murphy's law is working as usual

 

[Fishmanic]

@Abaddon
you created such a beautifully scaped tank. Well deserved win. Congrats!

 

[Essjay]

Congratulations

 

[emeraldking]

Congrats on the win, @Abaddon...

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Well done matey!

 

[dascrow]

Congrats @Abaddon!!

 

[Innesfan]

Beautiful. Well done.

 

[Whitecloudminnowguy09]

Nice tank, congrats

 

[Lcc86]

Awesome tank! Something to aspire to for sure

 

[WilliamG]

It is hard to believe that that tank is so small. It is very lush. I hope my tank will someday grow in something like yours.

 

[Abaddon]

It is hard to believe that that tank is so small. It is very lush. I hope my tank will someday grow in something like yours.

It got to that state within just a few weeks of frenzied shopping for plants lol This was it just 2 months prior: