I do use just plain gravel. Unless you are going high-tech high-light, I thing plain old gravel will work well for most purposes. My advice would be to start with a low-light tank of between 1.5 and 2 watts per gallon of light. Stick with low light plants and do lots and lots of research. My plants are all low-light save for the ones in the 5 gallon tank. I don't fertilize the 20 gallon tanks at all - those tanks are at 1.8 watts per gallon and considered lighting planted. I do heavily fertilize the 10 and 5 gallon tanks daily mainly because they are medium-densely planted and the fish alone cannot provide what the plants need to flourish.
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