Suggestions on new 2 gal planted

[Jay Why]

Any tips or thoughts appreciated of course. This is my first planted tank. Heres what I'm doing:

2 gal hex for betta and dwarf frog (& ghost shrimp.) The light that
came with it was a 5w incandescent. The anacharis lower leaves
rotted off quickly with this light - only at the very top did it survive.
I took out the dracaena variegatus/gold ribbon a few days ago when
one of the lower leaves started looking faded.

Today I installed a 4w CFL (which is supposed to equal 25w of
incandescent!) Is this too much? Am I right that I don't have to
worry about the CFL being listed as 2700k?

Tommorrow I'm going to clean all the brown/decaying leaves from
the anacharis, and add some more. I'm also putting back in the
dracaena.

I'm going to setup a DIY co2 system also. (It just sounds like fun,
and really inexpensive so why not.) I figure down the road a bit
I'll get some Flourish.

Finally - I've been doing 40-50% water changes every other day
because the levels of nitrite and nitrate have been off the charts.
(Nitrite is staying around 2 and nitrate is 40 with water changes.)
I'm assuming these messed up levels are from the decaying plant
matter, right? But what exactly is the plant putting off, ammonia?
Nitrite or nitrate?

Thanks

[ming]

I must suggest a higher wattage bulb, 4W for a 2G tank is very little because the WPG breaks down when you go on such a tiny tank. I suggest going to your local walmart and find their 9W(or 10W, I forget) CF bulb screw in for aquariums. and 2700k is a very tiny light range, the screw-ins at walmart are 6700k if i'm correct which is full spectrum. And if you do the DIY CO2, make sure to add very little yeast because you want the bubbles at a minimum(which will make the brew last longer too) or you'll get CO2 poisoning in the tank.

[SCMurphy]

I use a 19 watt screw in PC from Home Depot over my 2 gallon cube. You don't need DIY CO2 for a little tank, just use Excell by SeaChem.

[Mini4x]

I couldn't find anything over 3500k at Home Depot ot Loews..

I ordered some 15w 6500k ones from 1000bulbs.com but they have a $30 min order.. so I bought a Fulham 5 for me reef to overdive the lighting.

[ming]

Originally Posted by SCMurphy

I use a 19 watt screw in PC from Home Depot over my 2 gallon cube. You don't need DIY CO2 for a little tank, just use Excell by SeaChem.

Aren't those screw ins spiral? I heard spiral are bad design for the light to get in the fish tank. If they're not, then my local home depot just sucks.
Also excel is a good option instead of DIY

[Jay Why]

Ming, the new light I have is compact flourescent - its output is 25w or 250 lumens. (The old light was 4w/40 lumens.) Thats gotta be enough - right?

[ming]

Yup, that should be enough
With flourish excel and some ferts, your plants should be taking off
Although I'd suggest to use non-stem plants because they're a lot more work to always trim in such a tiny tank
I say play around and experiment with various setups and keep with what works for you(plants and equiptment wise)