20 gallon tall rescape

PlantedGourami · Nov 2, 2026

Hi everyone, I'm planning to rescape my 20 gallon tall planted tank and I wanted some inspiration of what to do, does anyone have any 20 gallon tall/similar dimension tank aquascapes to share?
It currently only has a fake cave as hardscape and I want to try aquascaping it
Also I want to move the Amazon sword in the middle when I do the rescape, should I try and completely uproot it or just cut the roots and let them rot in the sand?
I have a few pieces of hardscape (large seiryu stone, a piece of driftwood, and plan to go to my local lfs to buy some more hardscape) I just have no idea what to do for it

DaveSch · Nov 2, 2026

You can uproot the Amazon Sword, I've done that many times. Expect the roots to have spread quite a distance so go slowly. They're tough plants and you could trim the roots a bit if necessary but realize that the roots are supporting the leaves so you're likely to set the plant back if you cut too many roots off.

Regarding the design itself, pick out the hardscape you want and then play around with it on a table. Some lfs have a table with aquarium sand for folks to try out hardscape ideas. If your place has that you should take advantage of it. Otherwise, buy what appeals to you and then see what you can do with it. You can always take pictures once you have something set up in the tank and ask folks on this forum for comments.

PlantedGourami · Nov 2, 2026

You can uproot the Amazon Sword, I've done that many times. Expect the roots to have spread quite a distance so go slowly. They're tough plants and you could trim the roots a bit if necessary but realize that the roots are supporting the leaves so you're likely to set the plant back if you cut too many roots off.

Regarding the design itself, pick out the hardscape you want and then play around with it on a table. Some lfs have a table with aquarium sand for folks to try out hardscape ideas. If your place has that you should take advantage of it. Otherwise, buy what appeals to you and then see what you can do with it. You can always take pictures once you have something set up in the tank and ask folks on this forum for comments.

Do I have to take out the fish to uproot the sword? My substrate is inert but for the first 8 months of owning the tank i had gravel before capping it with sand, and I use root tabs periodically

I do plan to experiment with hardscape I have (I cut out a piece of cardboard roughly the size of the inside of the tank) I just also thought it would be helpful to see aquascapes other people have made in a similar tank to get some ideas on what to try

NoRoom4Shoebox · Nov 2, 2026

Your tank is gorgeos!, Im not sure if you need to remove the fish to make changes in this case, I am interested in what the answer is from somone who is more experianced with live plants.

A201 · Nov 2, 2026

I think your aquascape looks really good. I think an addition, rather than a complete rearrangement might be a better solution.

Just adding a good sized gnarly piece of Spiderwood would change things to the positive.

I have numerous XL chunks of Spiderwood in my tanks. You really can just randomly drop the Spiderwood into the tank and where it settles automatically looks naturally good.

Here's a pic of a huge octopus looking chunk of Spiderwood in my 120 gal. tank. Sorry the Mascara Barbs photo bombed the pic.

PlantedGourami · Nov 2, 2026

I think your aquascape looks really good. I think an addition, rather than a complete rearrangement might be a better solution.

It wasn't really an aquascape (just a cave behind the guppy grass in the left as the only piece of current hardscape) though I guess letting nature take over almost always looks good
I was mostly planning to remove the cave, move the sword to that spot, and in the middle have a large piece of seiryu stone surrounded by spiderwood or something like that with some anubias and stuff
Though I don't wanna take out too many hiding spots for my false juhli corydoras, would letting the vallisneria on the right grow really dense and the Amazon sword grow tall on the left give enough hiding spots? I have 6 cories in there that mostly hide in the cave and I don't wanna accidentally make them more skittish than they already are

DaveSch · Nov 3, 2026

Do I have to take out the fish to uproot the sword? My substrate is inert but for the first 8 months of owning the tank i had gravel before capping it with sand, and I use root tabs periodically

I do plan to experiment with hardscape I have (I cut out a piece of cardboard roughly the size of the inside of the tank) I just also thought it would be helpful to see aquascapes other people have made in a similar tank to get some ideas on what to try

No, you don't have to remove the fish to uproot the sword. Be prepared for a fair amount of debris to enter the water column though, so have have your filter on and it'll help clear the water. After things settle down, you can vacuum the surface of the substrate as needed.

PlantedGourami · Sunday at 4:42 PM

I've been playing around with some hardscape I've bought and I have these ideas so far, what do you think of them? I'm trying to build around fitting in plants and some hiding for the leopard corydoras in the tank

20 gallon tall rescape

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