🐠 TOTM VOTE NOW: August 2025 Tank of the Month Contest (31 US gallons and larger)

[connorlindeman]

Please Vote Now
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We have 2 great tanks entered in Fishforums' August 2025 Tank of the Month contest featuring tanks sized at 31 US gallons and larger! View both 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 August 15 at 5:50 P.M (ET).

 

[connorlindeman]

~Odessa Barb Utopia~

This aquarium is my pride and joy. Its a 40g breeder set up for a large shoal of Odessa Barbs. I purchased 20 Odessa barbs from Aquahuna and all 20 survived. I have 5 males and the rest females. I would like to see them spawn in the future, but I am not actively trying to make that happen. Theres are a few Amano Shrimp in there too.
Lets talk about the equipment.
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
Ludwigia Repens
Pygmy Chain Sword(I had dwarf sag but it got way too tall)
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Red

I look forward to seeing this aquarium continue to grow and hopefully in the future see some baby fish.

 

[Aharries]

This is a Fluval Roma 125. I removed all the trim as I wanted a 'rimless' tank (was initially worried about whether some essential structural elements had been removed along with the trim, but it's been fine). Current scape is about 2 years old.

Fish:
A pair of pearl gourami (1 male, 1 female)
Approx 9 green neon tetra
Approx 12 ember tetra
3 lambchop rasbora
Approx 5 otocinclus
Approx 5 amano shrimp

Plants:
Vallisneri in the back
Hygrophila polysperma
Java fern (not doing so well)
Loads of anubias
Amazon frogbit on the surface

I don't bother with ferts as I've chosen slow-growing plants and am happy to see how they grow with minimal input from me.

The lighting I got from Amazon. I have no idea what the watts, etc., are.

Filtration is an external cannister filter with Biohome Ultra. The flow is kept on the surface for oxygen exchange, etc., but I don't want too much movement of water within the tank itself, as the gourami prefer sluggish, slow-moving water.

I feed them every day with micropellets.

Regarding maintenance, I perform partial water changes once or twice a week, and that's about it, aside from occasionally cleaning the glass. We had an algae outbreak a few months ago, but decided to let it play out and see what happened (it went away after a while).

 

[connorlindeman]

Please scroll up as you review the 2 awesome entries and then in the poll at the top of this thread, click on your choice for Tank of the Month. Be sure to click the CAST button to register your vote. Good luck to all our entrants.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Please scroll up as you review the 2 awesome entries and then in the poll at the top of this thread, click on your choice for Tank of the Month. Be sure to click the CAST button to register your vote. Good luck to all our entrants.

Very rarely we ever see only tow entries in the TOTM competition.