Starting a new freshwater tank need suggestions

[Azazel]

hey I'm new here, there's a lot of interesting stuff going on, and everyone seems really knowledgeable

, I'll start by saying that I've been in the Saltwater aquarium fish hobby for several years and have gotten quite good I take care of several reefs at home, I'm heading off to college though and being on my own I discovered that I did not have enough money to start a new reef tank.

I do however have a JBJ 12 gallon nanocube that I bought earlier planning to start a reef tank, I started thinking about what I could do and the next best thing is definitely a planted tank.

I've done some preliminary reading and it seems like everything is good to go and that i don't really have to make too many modifications to the nanocube

(please correct me if i'm wrong)

but soon after this I discovered that I knew absolutely nothing about freshwater plants, which ones are easy to take care of, which ones look good, how fast they grow all those things.

since i'm new i'm looking for plants of easy to medium difficulty I'm not sold on any one plant yet but there are a few things, i'm going to have access to RO/DI water and i'm going to use flourite or eco-complete for as a substrate. I'll do water changes as often as is recommended, I don't think I plan on initially doing C02 injection but I might be convinced over time but I think I should lay it out assuming that I won't be doing any.

I also want to keep fish, which kind of fish doesn't really make that much of a differen't as long as these plants don't totally exclude me keeping a wide variety of fish.

a few things I know that I do want though

I want a plant that floats at the top of my tank like a lilly-pad type thing, doesn't have to be flowering ut that would awesome as well. I'd like if this plant had roots that went to the bottom
I want a relatively easy to keep plant that completely covers the ground of my tank forming a green mat.
I want a red plant of some kind
I want a plant that that takes up a good part of the middle of the tank

any suggestions on any of these would be very appreciated.

If I haven't provided enough specifics please tell me

So
-no c02 injection at least initially
-48 watts of CFL lighting
-good filtration, good water parameters
-all eco-complete/flourite substrate
-there will be fish but I can negotiate on the type

any livestock recommendations would be great too

 

[runninwoof]

1. I want a plant that floats at the top of my tank like a lilly-pad type thing, doesn't have to be flowering ut that would awesome as well. I'd like if this plant had roots that went to the bottom
2. I want a relatively easy to keep plant that completely covers the ground of my tank forming a green mat.
3. I want a red plant of some kind
4. I want a plant that that takes up a good part of the middle of the tank

lets start with numbers 1.
1. floating plants. theres duckweed and theres hornwort. neither has roots that go to the bottom and im not sure if theres a floating plant like that. maybe a tall lily.

2. u want a carpet. WHO DOESNT!? well, with your light you have option to grow some higher light plants such as, HC, MC, glosso, riccia, sag(i think sag is too big for a 12) but you would need co2. most carpet plants require ferts and co2. ANNNNND none of those plants are reletivly easy to keep. easy-er carpet = java moss

3. besides maybe a red crypt, red is a very hard color to comeby without co2 and high iron.

4. a good part of the middle tank. for this pretty much anything will do. i would say your going for kind of a low maintenance tank. therefor i would stay away from stems. soooo good mid ground plant would be: RED CRYPTS!!

5. fishes: if your going to do a java moss carpet, then i would go with SCRIMP! java moss always seems to get dirty. OR a BETTA
every 1 loves bettas. but make sure its a 50$ betta from aquabid or its just inferior

 

[mgamer20o0]

sweet you numbered them runninwoof.....

1 check out pennywort water lettuce or indian fern
2 note riccia wont stay down it doesnt attach its a floating plant. E. tenellus "micro-red" hair grass Marsilea minuta can work and you dont need co2 for these.
3 there are lots of red plants out there Ludwigia repens ammani gracilis needle leaf ludwigia
4 12 gallon is small there plenty of plants out there that can take up large area. crypts will do it java ferns will do it.... just about any normal middle ground plant would do it in a 12 gallon.

5 there are so many cool nano fish out there dont sell your self short with just a betta. prob can get away with a pair of apistos... there are so many cool rainbows that would work... lots of small rasboras and tetras.