At the minimum a five gallon tank is necessary. A ten works much better IMO, though. Id recommend sand as a substrate just because I like it better, but you could use gravel. I just would stick to more rounded, smaller gravel. I find them more versatile. You could go with live plants which is ideal, but you would need an appropriate light and ferts, so you may not want to do that right away. With fake plants you're going to want plants that are silk, so they don't cut the bettas fins. Try and get a filter that you can adjust the flow on, bettas don't swim too well in fast moving water. You will need a filter though. And a heater, appropriately sized for the tank. Id get a piece of driftwood too, they make the tank look better and provide caves. I'm not sure if your LFS will do this, but mine sells the driftwood they keep in their tanks. This helps because the driftwood won't turn the water brown because all of the tannins were already leeched out, and it has BB on it to help start cycling. See if you can maybe get seeding filter material from your LFS too, so you can add the betta immediately. If not, you could add the betta immediately and do a fish in cycle. Bettas have small bio loads so it won't be too hard to keep ammonia levels down. Just make sure to do daily pwc to keep them safe. You can test ammonia nitrite and nitrate with API master testing kit. Don't get strips to test, they are inaccurate. Also make sure to get water dechlorinator (prime is a favorite among fish keepers) and betta pellets. They also love blood worms as a "treat".
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