Help with Daughter's Christmas

So my daughter is planning her Christmas list and wants a tank. She has a 12 gallon Aquapod currently which she inherited from me when I upgraded my reef tank to a 40 Breeder. The Aquapod is stock with 54 watts of power compact lighting. She has a piece of driftwood, a java fern and one other live plant in a gravel substrate. Fish wise she has 4 fancy guppies, a molly, a cori catfish and 2 zebra danios. THings have been going ok but the plants have only been in the tank for about 3-weeks fertalized with root tabs.

K, on to the present. She wants a bigger one so she can have more fish. She also like the look of the planted tanks she has seen on this site. Specifically, she likes the look of tanks with ground cover and some floating tanks. My concern is that she is 9 years old and that in order to have a tank like that she would need a CO2 system. I have read about the DIY systems and they seem simple enough to build but I am concerned about her having to test/monitor those levels, etc.

I am willing to help her but the last FW tank I had was a cichlid tank many moons ago. I also want this to be her tank and therefore be responsible for its upkeep. I saw this tank at Petsmart. It isn't as big as she wants but it looks like something more manageable.

http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/live-plant-aquarium-25-deluxe-kit.htm

I am not a big fan of kits so I was also thinking about getting her a 30-40 gallon tank with a nice T5 light (any recommendations would be appreciated!), filter, good substrate and heater. Can she have the tank she wants with these components alone or should I start steering her in another direction? Thanks very much.

Thanks everyone for the responses. Some follow up questions...

mellowvision said:

she won't be able to have an HC carpet, but she can have a full tank of plants. Just keep to the low light plants, maybe use dwarf sag or HM in the foreground and get a bunch of nice java ferns and anubias... you won't need co2 for those.

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What is HM?

mellowvision said:

as for size, there is a sick 24" cube they sell at petco that is a great size for a second tank. I think it's 40 gallons, but the footprint is square so it seems more managable in terms of floorspace.

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Sounds like a sweet tank unfortunately my Petco is dreadful!!! I was there today and they had some 10-gallons and 20 longs, a 55 gallon combo, a 38 combo and a 29 combo. Of the tanks I have seen at Petsmart and the are LFS's, I am leaning towards a 38 bow, 40 Breeder or possibly a Marineland 60 gallon. I want her to have something she can grow and not fill it up in a week.

theicequeen said:

I have water wisteria, very low lighting and no co2. The wisteria grows like crazy .

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I have read that about wisteria. I will need to research that one more. Thanks!

EileenH said:

Did you check craigslist for a nice tank set up. Some have everything including the stand at a great price.
I have low-light tanks also no c02 and it is full of plants. I like black sand as it has iron in it and the plants grow well in it. You can mix the black sand with black eco-complete also. I also have a black background that shows of the plants better. certain fish really show up well with a black background like glo-lights, neon tetras. Bright colored fish.
Here are some low-light plants I have that are doing well in my tank:

anubias, java moss, dwarf sagittaria,water sprite, vallisneria, sprial vallisneria, cryptocoryne wendii red, taiwan moss, chain sword, wendelov, Wisteria, java fern,hornwort,willow leaf hygro, wendelov Java fern, cryptcoryne wendtii
Some of my tanks only have a 15w bulb an aqua-glo.

I posted pictures of my tanks under the Freshwater Newbie forum under the post Help! I inherited a mess . Look on page 3 I posted under Eileen

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Just checked out your pics. Very nice setups and I really like that black sand! Great info,thanks very much! So by low light do you all mean the stock type fixtures that come with most tanks (not sure of the wattage on those).

If not can someone recommend a good light fixture and bulbs. Would like to get something quality and not need to upgrade. I also want something that gives off a nice light for the fish and plants. I have a 4x39 T5HO on my reef but I am guessing that's too much light? Thanks again!!!

bushwhacker said:

you dont need special substrates co2 or even ferts for that matter tho they will all help. this is my 75 gallon playsand bottom.. lights claim to be 216 watts but i think they lie lol.

and my 55 also sand and i know this is only 82 watts also no co2 or ferts

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Wow, looks great! Thanks for sharing. That is very encouraging.