I have a Marineland Contour 3 that’s heavily planted with anubias. The tank is about a month old, so far everything looks great but I have a few questions about a setup like this.

Im not using CO2 but would Excel benefit this kind of system?

The soil is Brightwell Aquatics Rio Escuro-F should I stick a root tab in there, if so which brand is recommended?

Should I remove the carbon from the filter cartridges?

And final question, other than a betta do I have any fish options?