I did lots of waterlogged grapewood (looks like roots in a flooded forest) some swords and low lying plants, a few well placed rocks, and sand bottom. btw, comenting on your stock list, clown loaches are not SA. here is a pic of an awesome amazon tank (not my own) but close to what mine looks like.
You can use pool filter sand for substrate. It's a lite tan color, easy to clean and cheap (about $10 for 50lbs of prewashed sand). You clean it the same way that you clean gravel. Only very small particles get sucked out leaving the good stuff.
Ya im going to mix in the plants here and there hopefully going to get some great driftwood that looks good in a SA/CA tank so hopefully i can find something like this