🐠 TOTM VOTE NOW: September 2025 Tank of the Month Contest (16 US gallons and smaller)

[connorlindeman]

Please Vote Now​

We have 9 great tanks entered in Fishforums' September 2025 Tank of the Month contest featuring tanks sized at 16 US gallons and smaller! 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 September 17 at 4:34 P.M (ET).

 

[Abaddon]

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]

Here is my 10g Betta aquarium.

I started this one about a year ago because I wanted to try using Co2. I kinda just let this one be a jungle and only trim it when the pearl weed gets too tall.

Plants:

• Cryptocoryne spiralis 'Tiger'
• Rotala Red
• Pearl Weed
• Pennywort Japan
• Anubias Hastifolia
• Purple Fringed Riccia

 

[MattW]

This is my 12L (3gal) fry and shrimp tank. Just a grow-out and breeding tank, which is the reason for no substrate. It's home to 9 Neocardina shrimp, 3 Sawbwa resplendens and 2 Daisy's rice fish. I usually do a 2L WC every day when possible.
Plants include: Water lettuce, Taiwan moss, Süsswassertang, Java fern, Schismatoglottis prietoi, Guppy grass, and Pothos.

 

[Back in the fold]

BEHOLD ! ! ! My ten gallon with one lone male Betta splendens . Plants are Vesicularia dubyana Java Moss and Java Fern which is growing free floating . Filtration is an air driven sponge filter and lighting comes from above by way of a chicken light fixture with a 5 watt LED bulb . This aquarium has been home to many fish in the last few years as they come and go but the Betta has had it as his own for the past year .

 

[Burleson]

This is my six gallon slightly planted tank
There is one bully sail fin Molly in there name sunny though half the time I think I just have an orange slice in my tank and have a mini heart attack
I have a baby java fern in there with some hornwart and an anubia
I do water changes weekly and liquid fertilizer I plan to add more plants soon it looks a bit bare and hopefully get him a friend he doesn’t want to kill

 

[Ed Pursell]

Here,s mine,
Few live plants, Anubis, Java Fern, Java Moss.
One Blue Platy, one Tiger Barb, three Albino Tiger Barbs and a few Apple snails. three years established. Aqua Clear HOB filter, black gravel, just some basic items but doing great.. Been into this since late 70’s. This tanks been doing good for a small 10 gallon!

 

[MrsShrimp]

Here is my 10g planted aquarium, inherited from my dad and built upon with wisteria, anubias and moss balls and others I don't know the names of! It has been going for just over a year and is fully cycled with parameters carefully maintained.
Stock: Bronze corys x2, penguin tetra x5, cardinal tetra x2, black phantom tetra x3, 1 adult male sparking gourami who likes pestering the male dwarf gourami by croaking at it!
x2 young sparkling gourami newly added.
x2 bamboo shrimp (my pride & joy), about x4 armano shrimp and x3 nerite snails, zebra and brown striped.
It's over-stocked according to our local pet store, but all inhabitants are happy and healthy. I carry out weekly water changes, treat with Ph Down when necessary, plant fertiliser, and Filter Start when changing filter medium.
This tank may be small but provides us with constant happiness!

 

[Mudge]

Here’s my five-month old 10-gallon.

Home to five ember tetras, two cory catfish, three assassin snails, upwards of fifteen assorted neocardina, and plenty of bladder snails.

Moderately planted with Amazon Swords, Water Wisteria, Ludwigia repens, hornwort, and some others ((Rotala perhaps).

Parameters have remained steady now for months:
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrites
25 PPM Nitrates
7.6-7.8 pH
40-80 PPM KH
Hard Water (150-300 PPM GH)

 

[Whitecloudminnowguy09]

These are all really great tanks, and mine has no chance but I will enter it anyways!

My 10g planted WCMM tank:

I set this tank up 2 years ago. It has undergone many changes, including plants and editions, as well as substrate and background updates, but this is an up-to-date picture of it.

Stocking:
The stocking is simple, 6 white cloud mountain minnows. And bladder snails. 2 of the WCMMS are only 4 months old, and I raised them in another tank. The other 4 have been alive for 2 long years.
Plants, ferts, lighting, maintenance, aeration, filtration:
The plants are easy to identify from the picture, but I will list them.
Lilly bulb
amazon sword
val
2x dwarf sag
2x anubias nana
Hornwort
moss ball
I use Aquarium Coop Easy green and their root tabs as well. I do a 25% wc every week, with weekly trimmings. I have one airstone in the left corner. The filter is the top fin 10g HOB.
The plants are struggling a bit but I am about to start mixing my own ferts together soon. I have a nicrew light.
Feeding:
I feed bug bites, pellets, frozen bloodworms, flakes, and micro pellets to these WCMs. I also feed freeze-dried baby brine shrimp and daphnia. I feed them once a day. That is all!

 

[dascrow]

Wow, lots of good entries this month!

 

[connorlindeman]

Please scroll up as you review the nine 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.