It doesn't strike me as that tall, so maybe I misspoke about the size--bought it off Craigslist from a guy who said it's usually referred to as a 40g tank but in reality it's only 37g. The dimensions are 36" long, 15" deep, 16" tall.
Lighting--the Craigslist purchase included a Current light with two "dual daylight" tubes and nightlight, but that's another question I have--even with just one tube on, it's extremely bright--which maybe is good for plants? But so far the fish I'm interested in prefer dim lighting, so I'm wondering if I should look into at least one less bright light bulb? I have some stuff floating (plants, a cork log) that provides some top cover.
Plants--sorry, I've been buying them piecemeal and have forgotten some of the names already but a few are brazilian sword, water sprite, and anarchis. Also a couple other sword type plants, one of them is reddish. Others I can't remember their names.
Cycling--well, I got some possibly not-such-great advice about this at the LFS so I used a bottle of SafeStart and put 4 pearl danios and my Betta in there, and am just doing partial water changes and testing with an API master kit while I learn more. Currently have .25 ammonia, .25 nitrite, 0 nitrate. The fish have been in there about a week and seem to be doing well. My betta is just a different fish in there, he's really living it up. I'd hate to return him to his 5g tank to do a fishless cycle. So I probably will just forge ahead with a fish-in cycle. I was trying to buy some pre-seeded filter media but the online source I found can't ship right now due to the risk of freezing (shipping from NY). Wondering if I should ask my LFS but I'm afraid of possible contamination. I don't know any local fish people to ask for a piece of filter media, but maybe there's a club or something I can find.
The temp is about 76 and I have a hang-off-the-back 40g filter. Another question (sorry!!!) I have is, would it be beneficial when you're choosing a filter to get one rated for a bigger tank than you have? Or to get two filters? Or is that overkill?