🐠 TOTM ENTER NOW: February 2026 Tank of the Month Contest (31 US gallons and larger)

[connorlindeman]

Please enter now!​

Ladies and Gents, Boys and Girls, all our fish lovers around the world - it's time for our monthly Tank of the Month Contest!
This month we are allowing only freshwater aquariums sized at 31 US gallons (117 litres) and larger to be entered in the TOTM contest.

If you have a tank of the above stated size, please consider entering this month's contest. It doesn't matter whether your tank is planted or not planted and it doesn't matter if your tank is not yet near your final goal. More entrants make the contest more interesting, so enter your tank today!

RULES:
A picture uploaded via our "attach files" tool with a handwritten note held in front or attached to your tank with "February 2026 TFF TOTM" written on it is required to validate your entry. If you wish, you may post either a second recent picture OR a video (not both) without the note attached. (If you post a 2nd pic or video, that pic or video will be displayed as your entry post in the poll). Right under the pictures or the video, post a nice detailed write-up of your tank.
**The write up should include a good description of your tank including size, age of setup, fish stocking, water parameters, ferts used, lighting, filtration type, aeration, tank maintenance procedures, feeding schedules, etc.

• The tank you enter must be in your household
• If you won a TOTM contest previously, you must skip at least 2 TOTM contests before you can enter a different tank.
• Video can be uploaded to youtube and then a link to the video may be posted in this thread.
• A detailed description is required!
• Entries will be accepted till 4 PM ET (US) on February 7th or when we have 10 entrants...whichever comes first. Any entrant who posts an entry after we have 10 entrants will be asked to enter the next TOTM contest and their post will be deleted. The winner will be decided by votes cast by FishForums.net members.
• Please note: you are not allowed to have friends or family join TFF for the main purpose of voting for your entry

What do I win?

• You will get a cool banner in your profile area noting that you are a winner of Tank of the Month.
• Your winning entry will be showcased in a "TOTM Winner" topic for all to see and to comment.
• Your winning entry will be added to our TOTM Wall of Fame

Please don’t post any opinions about any specific entry. Such posts will be promptly deleted. Thread will be cleaned up occasionally for readability.

 

[connorlindeman]

I'll kick things off with my 40 gallon odessa tank.

I purchased 20 Odessa barbs from Aquahuna early last year and all 20 survived. I have 6 males and the rest females.
For most of my aquariums, I use either Nicrew or Chiheros lights. This time I decided to go all in and purchased the Fluval Plant 3.0. Wow. I was not disappointed. It actually changed the way I see this tank. All the colors pop much more then they did and the ability to control all the color levels is nice. Lights are currently on for 10 hours a day. No algae and the plants are doing great. I have the c02art inline kit and a Fluval 207 canister filter. Inline heater as well. I have the filter input and output mounted on the left side so it creates a circular motion. Pushing and pulling all the debris so it ends up at the filter. Its worked very well. I have the co2 set at 1 bubble per second. The substrate is just Black Diamond blasting sand. No soil. Root tabs added around the root feeders.
For plants I decided to keep it fairly simple:
Rotala Vietnam
Ludwigia Super Red 'Mini'
Rotala Green
Pygmy Chain Sword(I had dwarf sag but it got way too tall)
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Red
Cryptocoryne Spiralis Tiger
Cryptocoryne Costata
Madagascar Lace Plant
I added the lace plant in maybe a month ago and it has nearly tripled in size.
I will be moving in about 6 months so this tank is going to get torn down. Pretty sad about that. Its been developing nicely.