So i have a question on plants for my new 6 gallon and 5 gallon that im setting up on Christmas. Alright so im setting up a marineland 6 gallon eclipse tank and a 5 gallon hex 5 either by marineland or aqua-culture. I got it at walmart like 4 years ago basically these tanks are going to have 1 betta fish in each one and eventually maybe a cory or two or amano shrimp. Basically i'm trying to decide to questions:

1.) For the 2 tanks i bought a 20 lbs bag of eco-complete and plan to use that as the substrate. I still have a ton of dirt left over and also some clay too. So i was wondering if i should use the eco complete just like a layer of gravel over the substrate of dirt and clay or if i should just use it by itself. I don't want to have to fertilize so i feel like putting dirt underneath it would be my best choice, but i'm only going to do a thin layer, as with my 5 gallon rectangle tank i used to much dirt and its a mess. Its not everywhere but the dirt is on top of a lot of the gravel and its a pain to deal with. So what do you guys think? Also someone told me i don't have to wash eco complete and everyone says this do i have to or not because i heard that it is very clean and washing it out could just mess up and trace elements or minerals that could be in it and the water that it comes shipped in.

2.) I need a little suggestion as to what i should chose for plants and lighting. For the 5 gallon tank i'm going to have Italian val and dwarf sag. I think these tanks will contrast well together and also look very nice with a betta fish as well. I will be running 1 10 watt full spectrum, 600 lumens CFL bulb. The 6 gallon is my main issue. I have 8 watt of full spectrum T5 lighting that is the tube fluorescent lighting and is 12 inches. I can't find anything that is over 8 watts that is 12 inches! The pro is that the tank is almost directly in front of a south facing window that seems to get a lot of sunlight. I don't know if i will have enough light and especially in the winter when it will be darker out. Do you think i should run the lights for like 10 hours or something? I feel like i will defiantly add dirt to this tank. So i need some plant suggestions. I was originally just going to get some ludwigia repens and some anacharis for the background. Then for the mid ground i would have a piece or 2 of driftwood with anubias and some java fern too. I would have a red tiger lotus in the middle aswell as some rotalla indica on the sides. Then for the foreground i would have some dwarf hairgrass, chain swords, dwarf sag, bannana plants, and then maybe some micro sword or some thing else if anybody has any good suggestions. So what do you think? Any other layout ideas. The 6 gallon will also have a betta. Please tell me ideas about if the plants will get enough light.

Thanks for the help! :D