# My First REAL Aquascape Journey (20G Long) Part 1



## sunkyokim (Mar 12, 2006)

My Arsenal:


Aqueon 20G Long (braces taken off, clear corner braces siliconed on)
Oase Thermo 200 (Media: bio, sponge and carbon)
ADA Amazonia Aquasoil Ver 2 with a Layer of BiOrb Ceramic media for bio filtration
Jardli 13mm Glass lily pipe set
Lighting: temporarily the Current USA Satellite Plus Pro but changing to Current Serene Sun Le Pro (better par values)
about 15 lbs of Seiryu Stone and some Spider Wood for the Hardscape
5 lbs CO2 tank with regulator and solenoid on a timer 2 hours before lights come on and shut off 1 hour prior to lights out
ADA inline check valve to prevent water back flow through air tubing
Inline CO2 Diffuser
CO2 Drop Checker
ADA foggy screen (for a translucent background)

Took advantage of the Petco $1 a gallon the other day and it turned into this mountain of a project. The journey in a nutshell:
- took off the black braces but wanted to have the option of putting on a lid and also secure the corners of the tank so I found some clear plastic corner braces. Believe me, I had to search the deepest darkest pits of the internet for those! It was a pain to razor scrape the silicone residue!
























- Then the fun part came! Picked up a cheap 29 gallon black stand and then painted it white to match the decor of the house! 3 layers of primer, then a high gloss paint. Pretty much took a whole day!










- Once complete, I started the hardscaping: first layer I used the BiOrb ceramic media in lieu of lava substrate. Then I threw in 2x 9L bags of ADA Amazonia Aquasoil Ver 2 which I got from Amazon.

















- I then started the skeletal structure of the hardscape with Seiryu Stone and some spider wood. LOL I superglued parts of the spider wood to the seiryu stone once I was happy with the configuration only to discover it was already waterlogged/sank on its own!

















- started adding water to the tank for the first time to kick start the soil cycle and to make sure there were no leaks.

















- Plants came in today: S. Repens, Rotala Rotundifolia (Orange Juice), Micranthemum "Monte Carlo". spent the whole day planting each species piece by piece but realized I over ordered so I had the luxury of planting liberally.

* Reached my max photos for this thread, look for Pt 2 to continue *


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## FischAutoTechGarten (Jul 11, 2003)

My fish nook has 8 x 20 gallon long aquariums with the bases and rims removed. I like the idea of those clear corner braces and might like to order 32 of them... Where did you get them and what was their cost?


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## sunkyokim (Mar 12, 2006)

FischAutoTechGarten said:


> My fish nook has 8 x 20 gallon long aquariums with the bases and rims removed. I like the idea of those clear corner braces and might like to order 32 of them... Where did you get them and what was their cost?


got them here:








Corner Holders for Rimless Tank Lids - 5mm - set of 4 with Center Clips


Up Aqua Corner Holders for Rimless Tanks Lids - set of 4- Includes 4 corner holders and 4 center supports- For use on rimless tanks- Stabilizes the lid to




sevenports.com





They’re like $5.75/ set of 4 and these guys ship pretty fast. If you’re going to place an order shipping is like $10 so my recommendation is to make it worth your while and order a few sets. Hope this helps!


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## Zacmiller8 (Apr 14, 2021)

After you removed the black rims and added the corner brackets did you do anything else to reinforce the joints?


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