Ok. First off you are going to need a lot of light. Going by those plant profiles, you will need a minimum of 3 wpg... meanning at least 270 watts of light. That is near impossible with normal flourescent lights. You will need to look into either a power compact fixture, or the metal halide lights. Both are pricey. I got my
PC fixture for 350 canadian, and the bulbs from the same store are 50 a piece. That only gives me 2.4 wpg
For substrate, you will need something mixed with it with a fetralizer in it. I use Laterite. It is an iron rich substrate for plants. It goes underneath your sand or gravel. I use pool filter sand in my tank, mainly because it was the cheapest. You can use either sand or gravel... people here find that either works well.
You will also need to look at dosing liquid fertalizers as well. When the tank is heavily planted, you don't get enough nitrates from fish and food waste, so you have to add it as well as Phosphates.
Here is a great article about how to dose. It seems a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get into it it is very easy to follow.
Once you get the light figured out, you will also have to add co2 into the tank. With that much light, algea will take over the tank unless you supplement co2. The fish just dont supply enough naturally. For a tank this size, you can try doing it DIY (a pop bottle with yeast and sugar) but you go through so much sugar and yeast. I lasted about 2 months before getting fed up with it and going pressurized. Again... it's expensive, but necessary.
I have easily spent 700 cad on just the equipment for my tank... then all the plants and decorations. And I think I need to add a bit more light. It's not getting all the wa y to to bottom and some of the plants at the bottom aren't doing so well.
What are the dimensions of the tank?
Anything else I can help you with? It's a long process, and I had a million questions as well.
