as far as the actual plants go I use a mix of fast growing and slower growing plants. From local sources, I use anacharis and vals for the fast growers and small potted plants plus a few amazon swords for the slower growers.

For 4' wide tank I use 2 tube utility shop light fixtures from home depot/Lowes. For 1 3' tank I cut a foot off one of those fixtures but that was a lot of work. For smaller tanks I use compact flourescent (incandescent replacement bulbs) in either an incandescent aquarium hood (10g) or round spot clip on reflectors (20g) which I set on egg crate. Look for 6500k bulbs.

for a substrate I use 1" of peat moss with 1" of play sand and 1" of pc select (or aquarium gravel). esch layer is added and filled with water then the tank cleaned up and the layer leveled. Then the next layer added.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden