it sounds to me like if you want to take a stab at live plants, you should probably do a little more reading 
sometimes it is more manageable to take on the fish part first, then add live plants later on when you're a little more comfortable with everything.
that being said, it's not SUPER hard to have a low-light setup, but to avoid a tank crash or an algae over take you really need to do some research. read some threads and articles ( http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/read-this-first-resources-and-references-83826.html this thread has a ton of great links) and decide if a planted tank is something you are prepared to tackle.
our first tank (after a short 2-week stint with a 10g tank and two fish deaths [pre-AA]) is a low-light planted tank. you can follow it's set-up start to finish in my thread (link in my signature) to give you some kind of idea of the steps to take.
PWC's are done for several purposes.
during your fishless cycle: perform a PWC if you accidentally dose your ammonia above 5ppm, if nitrAtes rise above 40ppm (some argue they can go higher but i have had a cycle stall due to high nitrates, so better safe than sorry), or if you are using fish food for an ammonia source (which i don't recommend) and it needs to be cleaned up.
in an established tank: you want to be performing weekly PWC's (i do 50%, but anything over 25% should be sufficient) on your tanks. some will tell you bi-weekly, but that is for tanks that are under stocked and well filtered (IMO). so i always will recommend weekly PWC's, as you can't really do too many.
there a couple of reasons why weekly PWC's are necessary. (1) nitrate is the end result in the nitrogen cycle. ammonia is converted to nitrite which is in turn converted to nitrate. unless you have live plants, nitrate will always be building in your tank. weekly PWC's ensure nitrate levels stay below 25ppm (or so). (2) you should be vacuuming as you do your weekly PWC's to remove all the fish poo and excess food in the tank. yes, your filter picks up some of this gunk, but not all. your tank will need to be vacuumed and the filter cleaned (not replaced, just pull out the media/cartridge and swish it in old tank water) regularly.
hope that answers your Q
sometimes it is more manageable to take on the fish part first, then add live plants later on when you're a little more comfortable with everything.that being said, it's not SUPER hard to have a low-light setup, but to avoid a tank crash or an algae over take you really need to do some research. read some threads and articles ( http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/read-this-first-resources-and-references-83826.html this thread has a ton of great links) and decide if a planted tank is something you are prepared to tackle.
our first tank (after a short 2-week stint with a 10g tank and two fish deaths [pre-AA]) is a low-light planted tank. you can follow it's set-up start to finish in my thread (link in my signature) to give you some kind of idea of the steps to take.
PWC's are done for several purposes.
during your fishless cycle: perform a PWC if you accidentally dose your ammonia above 5ppm, if nitrAtes rise above 40ppm (some argue they can go higher but i have had a cycle stall due to high nitrates, so better safe than sorry), or if you are using fish food for an ammonia source (which i don't recommend) and it needs to be cleaned up.
in an established tank: you want to be performing weekly PWC's (i do 50%, but anything over 25% should be sufficient) on your tanks. some will tell you bi-weekly, but that is for tanks that are under stocked and well filtered (IMO). so i always will recommend weekly PWC's, as you can't really do too many.
there a couple of reasons why weekly PWC's are necessary. (1) nitrate is the end result in the nitrogen cycle. ammonia is converted to nitrite which is in turn converted to nitrate. unless you have live plants, nitrate will always be building in your tank. weekly PWC's ensure nitrate levels stay below 25ppm (or so). (2) you should be vacuuming as you do your weekly PWC's to remove all the fish poo and excess food in the tank. yes, your filter picks up some of this gunk, but not all. your tank will need to be vacuumed and the filter cleaned (not replaced, just pull out the media/cartridge and swish it in old tank water) regularly.
hope that answers your Q
