Live plants?

Yes you still need the shrimp.

The light you have now will probably work for growing plants as long as it is a florescent daylight/plant-gro bulb.
 
I've been told the ammonia is easier for the plants to convert to nutrients than Nitrate so it should be fine. But you want to get crypts and other low light/low maintence plants if your not able to upgrade the lights. Also, they may seem like they are withering for a week or two when you first put them in, but they will come back.
 
The "fish woman" at a pet store told me that I should wait about a month after fish are in the tank before I add plants.

I'm still thinking, though, about getting a plant light bulb this evening and maybe one plant just to see how it does in my cycling tank.

Does the plant need something from a fish to survive - like CO2 or can I still put a plant in there while I'm waiting for the tank to cycle?

All I have for the bottom is some gravel rocks I got from the fish store.
 
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you can add the plants now before you get the fish, you don't need to wait until a month afteryou put the fish in.
 
I feel it's more difficult to maintain a system without plants than it is a system with them.

In fact, aside from maybe certain African cichlid systems in which I wouldn't have plants due to trying to stay faithful to the biotope, I wouldn't dare run a system without a good bulk of botanical mass. Would you want to inhabit a planet that didn't have plants?
 
Thanks for all the advice! I'm definitely getting plants as soon as I can. The three pet stores in my area of Seattle haven't had the right bulb in stock, plus I'm having difficulties finding low light plants. Hopefully it won't be too long, it will be nice to have something alive in the tank after all these weeks (still cycling).
 
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