My first real planted tank

Alright! Time for pictures! (hope this works)

This first one is just after I got the aquarium home, quite dirty, and with the fake stone backwall still in:
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Then, the next evening, after several hours of work, getting rid of the back wall:
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And another few hours later, once the back was out and the tank cleaned:
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And finally, the state it is currently still in, filled with water with the electronics running:
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During the next week I'm going to empty it again, and try to repair the cross beam at the top, as the long sides of the aquarium are bending slightly outward, which worries me. After that it's time to start looking for a few large rocks, and the driftwood I want to put in there to grow a moss tree.
 
Looking nice, what was that back wall made of?
 
It was one of those official juwel backwall plates, foam mostly, but the rocky looking outside was a harder kind of plastic, not sure what. It's all out, that's the important part ;)
 
Definitely replace or repair the center brace. Newer aquariums do need the additional support.
 
Alright! Emptied the aquarium yesterday, being thoroughly convinced that it has no leaks, and that the pump and heater work properly. Couldn't get the last bit of water out, but that's alright. Kinda dirty again now though. I did install a new brace at the top, it was fairly easy to remove the broken bits of the old one, so no worries there, now the glass shouldn't bow out when the aquarium is refilled.

Washed my gravel twice (bucket by bucket) before adding it to the aquarium, building 2 hills, one large one smaller, and put some landscape stones on the larger one. Not entirely happy with the look of the stones, so if you have any tips... I will get a few more small stones when I go back to the shop

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The hillock to the left side is meant for the moss tree (which I didn't get yet).

Not sure if the inlet of the filter is high enough above the gravel, it's nearly touching now and I assume the gravel will slide at least a bit, even though I did add quite a few small pieces of slate as supports so the hills won't slide too much, also worried about how tall the hill to the right is, might add more supports tonight, but will probably do a whole redesign (while I have no plants and that's still easy)
 
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Looks nice. If the inlet is pulling up gravel, you can always put a prefilter sponge on--I'm a fan, since it reduces the solids that get into the canister and mean it doesn't have to be cleaned as often.
 
I would be worried about gravel being moved at all.

But I love the way it is, Even without any plants
 
Yes, very cool looking setup!
 
Thanks you guys!

I also got around to testing my tap water just now. Decidedly average values I think. Ended up with 7.6 pH, 6 KH (107 ppm) and 9 GH (160 ppm). Hardness might be a tad low, and the water seems slightly alkaline (as to what I've read of the recommended values), but am not sure if I need to worry.
 
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