Advice On Starting A Planted Tank

[basboi85]

Firstly please take it easy as I get confused very easy my little pea brain can't handle to much to quick lol

Basically I want to add live plants to my tank.

I currently have fakes and no matter what I try they just won't have the same affect

What will I need to start to be able to have live plants in my tank and that are low maintenance

I have a jewel rio 400 so a fair sized tank
I have 45kg of play sand as my substrate.

I'm unsure of the lighting but my tank is well lite up 1 warming light and a bright white light ( ill check wattage tomorrow

Can anyone explain to me in simple terms what I need to do and what I would need.

I have no clue what plants are what so I'm going to scroll through the planted section looking at plants

Any suggestions for a hopefully live planted newbie

 

[CezzaXV]

Anubias, java fern and Amazon swords have always done really well in my tank, and I never dose fertilisers and some days if I'm not home I won't have my lights on at all. Moss and crypts can also be good in low tech setups, and most people will tell you vallis is a good low maintenance plant but I've had absolutely no luck with it.

You can go super high tech with plants if you want, but it can be as simple as you want it to be really. I've arrived at my collection of plants through trial and error.

 

[Flute]

I'm going to move this over to the Planted Tanks section, I'm sure some of the members over there will be able to give you some fantastic advice on how to get started with plants