When I was first starting this tank, I did a whole lot of research about planted tanks. I couldn't wait to get mine up and going, but I was on a budget.. When I was beginning to buy all of my stuff for it, my original plan was going to be an iwagumi set up. I find them absolutely mesmerizing and thought that that look would best suit a ten gallon tank and be reasonably easy to care for. Obviously that's not what I ended up with; but I couldn't be happier with my tank how it ended up.
For my lighting, I went with the Finnex Ray II, a bit pricy for an LED light in my opinion but it's money well spent, I love the really bright look it gives the tank and defiantly speed up the plant growth compared to the crappy lights I had before.
For the soil, I choose Eco Complete. Coming into a hobby I didn't really know all that much about, I struggled choosing which substrate I should choose. I was worried that I'd be stuck with something I don't like and possibly have to tear down the entire tank and restart because of poor plant growth. But now I am extremely happy with the eco complete and it's defiantly a product I'd suggest to my friends. My only problem I had with it was with the Dwarf Baby Tears actually getting a good hold on the bottom and not floating away. If I could do it all over again I'd dry start the Baby Tears so that they'd have a head start after flooding my tank.
As for plant food or fertilizers, I pour into my tank about once a week API's Leaf Zone Aquarium Plant food and insert into the soil Osmocote Smart-Release Plant food. The osmocote is actually plant fertilizer for outdoor or potted plants but I read on another thread, which is somewhere lost in the interverse (internet universe), that you could insert them into pill capsules and burry them in the substrate just like you would with root tabs and they do the same thing. Basically a life time supply of ferts for ten bucks at Home Depot. Every 3 to four months, replace the osmocote and you're good.
For a while I wanted a fancy pressurized CO2 system, solenoid an all but I ended up going the natural way and make my own with yeast and sugar. But instead of using ugly two litre bottles stuck behind my tank I purchased Nutrafin's Natural Plant system for the Aquarium and inject my co2 with a bubble ladder that I hid in the back corner. You can't even see it in the pictures so it works out nicely. I get good co2 for about a week and then it dies off but once I like how the plants have grown in, I just don't mess with it until I want to see some speedier growth.
