First Planted tank. need some advice!

[mattstevens1]

Alright So I've been keeping fish for quite some time now. I have fresh and saltwater tanks and decided my bathroom needed some life in it and since I had the spare equipment laying around I figured there was a perfect spot for a 10 gallon tank. Since I have NEVER kept live plants before and recently really fell in love with them that I would start a planted tank. Now what I know I want are the following

Livestock:
Cardinal Tetras
Some sort of Shrimp
And maybe 2 more larger fish.

Now first off. The light I have right now is a Deepblue Solarmax HE lights that could be used for coral. Now will they be good enough for plants?
I will be using the Seachem Flourite Black sand. but how deep of a sand bed is good?

Now for the plants.... I work at an aquarium store and we have live plants but I have NOOOO clue what would work with what I want or what would go good or basically some EASIER to keep since it is more first go at this.

But aswell, what Shrimp would work if they will work and I was leaning towards maybe 2 opaline guaramis?

Anymore advice would help I already read the sticky so any other info would be nice thank you!

 

[Fat Homer]

Not sure how well the light will work, but as a guess i would say sticking with plants like the petite nana anubias might work well and some moss to keep it low maintanence...

Depending of temps and fluctuations in temps, Cherry Red shrimp might work, but will be a slight gamble, i highly doubt Crystal Reds will work as they can be quite picku about water parameters and temps...

Although with fish in the tank, you may find it a little hard to get a colony going since they will pick off the babies...



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[HybridHerp]

No, if your light is meant for coral, all it will do in freshwater is promote algae growth, since the plants do not use the wavelength of light.
As far as fish, don't add the goruami's the get too big for a 10 gallon. And shrimp breeding will be impossible with the tetras already in the tank. If you want shrimp, let the shrimp establish and start breeding before adding fish.

As far as plants, well, that is going to depend upon your lighting situation. Again, your lights are probably going to be strong enough to grow plants, but you need to alter their color. Can you get different bulbs for your fixture, something like 7000 on the color spectrum? That would help you immensely.