thinking of new setup for 20g to 30g

Well no one seems to be helping you out here so I'll give it a shot on the things I do know about. I've only been keeping fish for about half a year so I'm still a newbie too, but I've read tons.

I haven't kept any plants(but I plan to in the future) so I can't help you on that. And that alone will give you answers to most of your questions. Try posting in the aquatic plants section of this site.

For a filter I recommend an Eheim. RTR always strongly endorses Enheims and has used MANY of them exclusively for decades. They are more expensive than other brands but, from everything I've read, you're more likely to die of old age waiting for them to break than experiencing a break down. I personally have a Fluval 204 for my 29 gallon and really like it. It does have some failings that I have read of, but I have bought parts for the high failure items in the case of them breaking/wearing out. My next large filter purchase will definetly be an Eheim.

Another thing to consider is to have more than 1 filter in your new tank. This is so, in case one of them breaks, you have redundancy to keep your fish alive until you can repair or replace the defective filter. I have a Duetto 100 in addition to my Fluval on the 29 gallon. If the Fluval explodes my fish are still in bad circumstances but at least they are getting some filtration.

Another thing about filtration is to find out how many gallons per hour they are rated to filter in an hour and make sure you have at a bare minimum 6 complete turnovers of the tank per hour. Recommended to actually have 9 compete turnovers per hour. My Fluval turns over 180 gph and the Duetto 90 gph so I have 270 gph turnover on a 29 gallon. I'm still not actually getting that much turnover because the filters are rated while they have no media in them.

About the Gourami's. They are beautiful fish but they are also fairly aggressive. IME Occasionally you may come across a docile one, I have read about them(I've also read about Bigfoot too) but make sure you don't keep them with any other fish that have large fins. 'Cause the fins aren't going to be there after a couple weeks.

That's all I have. Sorry I couldn't cover anything but two of the questions.

Lights first

Begin with the lights. If you want to have good plant growth you will need about 2.0 watts per gallon, more or less, and you need to work out what type of lights you can find for the types of tanks you can find.

I noticed that my local Petsmart (or was it Petco?) has double bulb light strips for ~$100 which is a very good price, for 36" and 48" tanks. They might have it for 24" tanks as well. Online you can get triple bulb strips for about that same price.

I am using a triple bulb strip on a 38 gallon tank (36") and I am very pleased with it. I have used a double bulb on a 20 high and did not like it, it was dim IMO. I was pleased with a 55 watt retrofit from AHSupply for that tank. I have used screw-in compact flourescents, both the spiral types and the u-shaped types in 10 gallon tanks and had good results.

The 20 long tank is the same footprint as the 29 gallon tank and there are no 30" long flourescent bulbs. A 24' blb leaves the corners dim. I have a 55 watt retrofit (24") on that for a lower light tank, but the corners are dim and in a shorter tank like a 20 long that would be noticable. I think that 2 x 36 watt retrofit might work bettter in that situation, but I am not certain of that.

As far as tank choices, IMO it is better to get a "picture shaped" tank, so the front panel is no more than twice as long as it is tall. I do not prefer the longer tanks, just as a decorating statement it gets hard to work it into a room. Too tall and it is hard to work in the tank, one tank which is 27" tall is more than my arm can reach and so I tend to drop heavy rocks sometimes if a fish bites me -- very scary in a glass tank!

Look around at DrFosterSmith.com and BigAlsOnlline.com and PetSolutions.com and ThatPetPlace.com and PetSupplyLiquidators.com and AHSupply.com for lighting choices. And your local stores, of course.

It doesn't sound like you're going to use the plants for much more than looking nice and eating up fish waste, so defintely go with the easier varities for right now: java moss, java fern, crypts, etc. They look good and are pretty hardy.

Look around online for plants as well, you can usually get better selection at a cheaper cost. Look around the planted forum. Beviking ordered some plants from a site (can't remember the name, sorry) and had nothing but good things to say about them. The thread's probably 2-3 weeks old.

Think stem plants, start with lots, they grow fast and help keep algae in check. I find that having fast growers in the tank along with the slower plants, live java fern, really help the slower ones thrive.

Definitely think lighting first, that'll be your limiting factor. Ask lots of questions in the planted forum, lots of experience there.

I don't know if you'll be able to keep ~10 gouramis together in a 30 gallon... You'd be lucky to find 1, 2 or maybe even 3 that have good temperments, but to find 10 that are all good natured would be tough (imvho!! )... I'd say go for 4 gouramis, then maybe some bottom clean up guys (cories, ghost shrimps).

Also, don't forget that gouramis are labryinth (sp?) fish, and breathe air from the surface, with 10 of them, especially in a picture tank it could be crowded... (I've never heard of picture tanks, but from what I can gather, they're more square than rectangle, so less surface).

Hopefully someone with a bit more experience with gouramis can help you out on the stocking (I've only had 1 gourami, who was very cool, and lived in my tank for 2 years)...

Good luck
~Tara

edited for stupidity!

Bio-Wheels, from what I've read, are a favorite filter of many people. They sit on the water line(someone correct me if there is a type that doesn't) and is often built into the hood of the tank. The entire premise of the bio-wheel is that it exposes the beneficial bacteria to oxygen from the air so they don't take oxygen from the water that the fish need. This is fine if you have an unplanted tank.

In my tank(which is NOT planted) I aim the outputs of my filters barely above the water line to cause surface disturbance. This allows the water in my tank to release CO2 and obtain oxygen for the fish to breath.

If I planted my tanks I would adjust my outputs below the water line to not cause surface disturbance so the plants would not lose CO2 that they need to breath. A bio-wheel is designed to sit on the water line and will cause surface disturbance which will suffocate any plants.

Here are some links to other threads on this subject.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22771&highlight=biowheel+planted

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12086&highlight=biowheel+planted