The second of my "show" tanks, this aquarium (like all of mine) came to me second-hand. It's definitely seen better days; the glass is significantly scratched along the front, and when I set it up, I kept the orientation rather than rotating it because the top framing is made with a "front" and "back" - the rear has notches so that equipment will fit more easily over the frame. The equipment I was using at the time did require the notches in order to fit, so I'm pretty much locked in unless I do something drastic (like completely break down the tank). Thankfully most of the scratches are shallow enough to escape notice from a normal viewing distance - but they do get in the way of macro photography. Not only was the glass in poor condition, the silicone was as well - within months of its first setup, one of the edges sprang a very slow leak. This was after the dreaded Heater Accident that killed most of the fish, so I was able to immediately break down the tank. It sat empty for many more months before I finished resealing the inside - to be honest, considering the price I paid for the tank and stand (I'm not using any of the accessories that came with it), I probably should have just given it away and gotten a new one on sale. But I didn't think of that at the time! And it was very satisfying to have completed the reseal job myself.
Originally this tank was meant as a second African cichlid tank, but once I had gone through the laborious process of resealing, I decided to dump the survivors into my already-established mbuna community and go for neon tetras and other smaller community fish. (My parents' corner aquarium, at that time featuring a sizable school of neon tetras, was a big reason I chose this route!) I wanted this tank to be an "art project" as well - I chose a black background and black moon sand in order to set off the neons' colors, and convince a bristlenose pleco to return himself to black - he'd been living in a 20 gallon tropical community with variegated tan gravel, and had turned himself brown. I was also tired of keeping up with four tanks scattered around the house and wanted to condense.
Having committed to a tropical community setup, I knew I wanted to keep my livestock choices relatively limited, and did some thinking and research about biotopes including neon tetras, but while this tank is focused on South American fish, there are a few "immigrants" to the continent. My 20 gallon community included three checkerboard barbs that I'd purchased at the same time as the pleco - impulse buys from a local fish store that was closing. Later on I couldn't resist adding two dwarf gourami - one of my first aquarium setups included gourami, but this was back in high school before I was an expert (LOL) and I was never satisfied with how that tank turned out, and the fish didn't last long.
The current livestock list:
~40 neon tetra (Paracheirodon innesi) - don't ask me to count them exactly
3 albino cories (Corydorus paleatus)
3 panda cories (Corydoras panda)
3 checkerboard barbs (Puntius oligolepis) - 2 male, 1 female
2 oto cats (Otocinclus vestitus)
2 dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia) - both male, one red, one blue (this does not stop them from fighting)
1 bristlenose pleco (Ancistrus sp.) - one of the "starlight" varietes
1 blue ram (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi) - male
1 zebra nerite snail (Neritina natalensis sp. Zebra) - female (and lays eggs all over my driftwood!)
Current plant stock list:
Melon sword (Echinodorous sp. unknown; definitely not osiris according the the photos I've seen)
Amazon sword (Echinodorus amazonicus)
Water sprite (Hygrophila difformis)
Cardinal plant (Lobelia cardinalis)
Crypt (Cryptocoryne wendtii(?)) - ID uncertain
