Beginner 20g and 10g planted tank. Thoughts?

Hi all, wanted to share my first ever two tanks started exactly a year ago. It's definitely been a journey learning so many new things about fish and live plants thanks to this forum! From the beginning, I wanted to go fully natural; no plastic tacky decorations or fake plants. When i googled aquascaping, I fell in love with the art of scaping. However, could not afford to spend hundreds of dollars on big tanks, high end equipment or exotic rocks. Plants and mopani wood are from petco/petmsart/lfs. Rocks are local to upstate NY. Substrate is basic one form petco which i am keeping for now, but may upgrade to a better one at one point (eco complete or etc). For ferts i am using easy green, liquid CO2, seachem flourish excel, seachem flourish and seachem root tabs. Lights are on 7 hours a day.

Below is what I am currently at now please share your thoughts, advice and critiques. Thanks for looking!

10g tank with cherry shrimps, cardinal tetras, nerite snail and a guppy.


20g tank with amano shrimps, platies, sword tail, nerite snail and rummy nose tetras:

 

At some later stage maybe add some sort of larger center piece fish to one of the aquariums that would catch peoples eyes and stand out; such as a single male gourami. You’d just have to make sure that it wouldn’t attack the other fish and is compatible with your water parameters.
Otherwise a really sweet looking tank!

 

Not sure how those tanks are beginner? They look better than mine and I’ve been keeping fish for a decent amount of time! You did a great job aquascaping it

A trio of honey gouramis in the 20 would look nice. I wouldn’t do dwarf gouramis, they can be aggressive.

 

At some later stage maybe add some sort of larger center piece fish to one of the aquariums that would catch peoples eyes and stand out; such as a single male gourami. You’d just have to make sure that it wouldn’t attack the other fish and is compatible with your water parameters.
Otherwise a really sweet looking tank!

i haven't had luck with honey gouramis nor blue dwarf gouramis at all. they all died within few months for no apparent reason keeping either single or a few (tested water, dosed different medicines, etc). for 10g i was going with a school of fish and school of cherry shrimps for busy activity look. for 20g i definitely agree with a center fish.

Not sure how those tanks are beginner? They look better than mine and I’ve been keeping fish for a decent amount of time! You did a great job aquascaping it

A trio of honey gouramis in the 20 would look nice. I wouldn’t do dwarf gouramis, they can be aggressive.

thanks! see above reply to Jammyfish. no luck with gouramis. maybe i just had bad batch every time. maybe my water parameters are not suitable (ph 7.2, temps 78C, very soft NYC water)

 

i haven't had luck with honey gouramis nor blue dwarf gouramis at all. they all died within few months for no apparent reason keeping either single or a few (tested water, dosed different medicines, etc).

It seems like modern varieties are really susceptible to disease and are pretty fragile. Especially dwarf or honey types.

 

Both tanks look amazing! What plants do you have in the 10G?

 

Both tanks look amazing! What plants do you have in the 10G?

thanks! both tanks have same plants: anubias, amazon swords, regular java ferns, windelow java ferns, aponogeton, thai onion, rosette sword and the pinkish ones are Alternanthera Reineckii (just got them so i hope basic led light will suffice for them)