November '10 - Leandro Crivelenti's 350 L Community Aquarium. (Brazil)

Here's a very nice planted community setup put together without much sophistication, taking ample advantage of homemade solutions for the substrate, filtration and CO2 injection.

Owner:	Leandro Crivelenti, 27, from Batatais (Brazil), 12 years of fishkeeping.
Setup:	January 2008.
Dimensions:	160x40x55 cm.
Volume:	350 L (nominal).
Filtration:	DIY wet-dry filter.
Lighting:	3x40 W fluorescent, 11 hours a day.
Heating:	1x300 W Hagen.
Substrate:	Laterite + humus (in perforated tubelets) covered with pool filter sand.
Decoration:	Driftwood and a few rocks.
Others:	FloraPride fertilizer, 2 timers to give a "sunrise and sundown" effect, DIY CO2 injection on either side of the tank.
Water:	Temp 26°C, pH 6.8.
Maintenance:	Water changes 15% a week. Fertilization every 15 days. Filter cleanup once a month (acrylic wool).
Fauna:	4 discus, 10 cardinals, 2 albino cories, 3 bronze cories, 4 tiger cories, 1 redfin shark, 1 algae eater, 4 otos, 5 spotted plecos.
Flora:	Echinodorus tenellus, Java moss, a few crypts, ferns, bacopa, cabomba, hygros, valisnerias, Eichhornia sp., lilies and others.
Comments:	This is a very stable setup, it's located at my parents' house and I can't always do regular maintenance. The 2 timer settings help create a different atmosphere (pink tones at sunrise and sunset) and the fish show better disposition during those 40 minute intervals. The filtration was done with really cheap material like a water tank, PVC tubing, acrylic wool, nylon, etc., but it's very effective. I use water from a dechlorinated reservoir, and add fertilizer every 15 days.

If you'd like to submit an aquarium for Tank of the Month, just contact me.

Discus and plecos can sometimes be a risky combination

Cardinals hanging around the underwater garden

Homemade filtration and CO2 injection

Photos taken by Leandro Crivelenti and displayed here with his permission.