Considering getting live plants...help

[ergo sum]

I learned when I first started keeping aquariums that you could fight an algae breakout by changing the light. Some people do this by blackouts and some people do this by adding more light and nutrients. I just think it should be noted that increasing the light on an aquarium can also cause an algae breakout.
If you are going to go from low light to high light you probably should also add more plants. Especially something that grows quickly.

 

[reiverix]

A 10% water change on a 20g is only 2 gallons. Hardly worth the effort really. Best to increase to 50% weekly as your fish stock are producing more nitrates than you are removing.

By all means get plants. It takes you into a whole new ball game and a very rewarding one at that. You may even get to the point where you are manually adding nitrates. Still, I do a 50% weekly change in my heavily planted tank and I swear my plants love it. I know my fish do.