Wanting to add some plants

[removedastars]

I have a 46gal bowfront right now just with fake decor and plants and I want to start adding in some real plants. What plants would do well in hard water at 80degrees with little upkeep. Are there any plants that can thrive in just a gravel base or would I need to add some kind of substrate? I have 2 blood parrots, 2 green terror and 2 midas cichlids in the tank right now so plants that would coordinate with a new world cichlid tank.

Thanks in advance for your advice and help

[Purrbox]

Gravel is a substrate, and as long as the grain size isn't overly large will work perfectly fine especially in lower light setups. Since you haven't mentioned lighting at all, I'm guessing that you've got standard lighting and your aquarium would be in the low to very low light range. As such your best choices light wise would be Anubias, Java Fern, Java Moss, and Crypts. These should all be fine in hard water, but I'm not 100% on the temperature. My bigger concern would be the Cichlids. I know that many varieties are not plant friendly and can make it much more difficult to keep plants. If the varieties you are keeping fall into this category, the Anubias is going to be your best choice since it can be tied to driftwood or rocks which would prevent it from being dug up and the thick leaves make it harder to tear apart.

[removedastars]

I have a 16000K bulb in a standard aquarium light fixture, and i stated above all the fish that are currently in the tank. Those will probably be the only inhabitants for a long time.