June’s Tank of the Month!

75 Gallon Planted Aquarium Margaret K,

I am always pumped to see a new tank setup with unique features not often seen in most tanks.  This along with watching someone use dirt in their aquarium for the first time is a real treat.

This June, “Tank of the Month” comes from Margaret K up in Montreal Canada.

The first thing that I love about this tank is the commitment to a large piece of driftwood.  Too often I see people with large tanks using small driftwood that is barely noticeable.  As I like to say, the hardscape is the hard part.

This driftwood is thick, bold and aggressive.  You notice it right away and it takes your eye all over the tank in an easy transition. I also like the smaller piece which comes up out of the corner of it.  This gives us three nice balanced, “branches” of wood.  It isn’t easy to find great wood for an aquarium and it is even harder to mix two different pieces,  this is done effectively in this tank.

I am typically not a fan of tanks without back drops. Most of the time, a tank without a backdrop leaves too much distraction from the shadows behind the tank.  This aquarium pulls it off.  I think it is the way that the light pops through out the back and has a shadow, whatever it is, it’s working.

This has a large amount of bottom feeders, including I think three rather large Synodontis Catfish. (I think petricola but am not positive)  These fish are eternal tank substrate movers along with some plecos she has.  Margaret has a sweet Royal pleco,  an albino bristle nose, a regular bristle nose and a slew of babies from when the albino and the regular bristle nose bred. 

While all of these plecos are great, they aren’t great for a dirted tank in the traditional sense.  With this setup Margaret decided to go with putting her plants in pots.  This is her first round using dirt and like most hobbyist was used to the plants she had just maintaining in the sand.  I have seen the response already from the plants liking their new dirted pots.  The Hygrophila particular is going to really take off and I am excited to see how large it gets for her. The pots aren’t too big either and don’t really distract from the aquascape.

Beyond the plants and fish, the equipment on here is pretty slick. The lights are from Build My LED and look great.  The tank has a built in overflow which I personally have never used in a planted tank, but is working here.  The sump is used as a refugium and contains a few shrimp and I believe some anacharis.  The wildest part of this tank for me is the extensive amount of sensors and computerized monitoring system it has.  The Neptune unit is made for salt, but spits out all kinds of reading on PH and Ammonia ect. 

I’d love for Margaret to put some more comments up about this great tank as well as get your feedback on this great- June’s Tank of the Month!