Hi,

So basically I have a 14 gallon planted tank with basic gravel, bad lighting (2 10 watt CFL) and then I don’t do any co2 or fertilization. Some plants like the water wisteria and banana plants are doing fabulous and I really like how they have turned out. I’m planning on starting a planted 5 gallon tank. I wanted a 1 but parents like the idea of a 5 better. I want to just have a loaded plant tank and then also keep a betta with them. Anyways, I really want to make this tank look nice and make it start off good. So my plan was too do a mix of organic dirt and clay and then top it off with gravel. For plants I was thinking about doing dwarf sag and banana plants for the foreground. For the mid-ground I want to have a small piece of drift wood with Christmas moss and anubias or java fern on it. After this I wanted to get some jungle val and put it on the opposite side as the driftwood and have is hanging to the other side. Then I want to have some pennywort and red tiger lotus near the jungle val. I also wanted to add some stargrass to fill up the mid-ground and maybe add some ludwigia repens or rotala walichhi in the back of it to fill up the middle background. I was also thinking of maybe putting a sword or two in there. What do you guys think, and what other plants would you take away or add? I will be running 2 10 watt CFL bulbs like  the same ones in my 14 but this will give it 4 watts per gallon which seems good enough for me even though watts per gallon isn’t that great anymore. I’m going to run an aqua-tech 5-15 HOB power filter and instead of putting in a betta that I already have, I may want to purchase a really fancy expensive one that will look great in the tank but probably not. What do you guys think of my plan and what are some recommendations to it? I may wind up doing a DIY so2 system or adding fertilizers if I really need it, but I think the dirt will work just fine. Also I was thinking of adding some iron or fluorite, but I need more information on those.

Thanks for the help, Braden :D