[nokturnalkid]

Technically, you don't need any of those fancy plant substrates although it does help. You can grow plants just fine with an inert substrate. Depending on your setup, you can add ferts through the water column or through feeding your fish. If you just have plain aquarium gravel, you could add some root tabs under your heavy root feeders(crypts, swords, etc). I don't want to promote any specific product but I've tried rootmedic, seachem root tabs, osmocote, and wondergro. They have all done their job. Some better than others.

Describe your setup. Lights, co2, low tech, high tech, type of plants? It will help to see what the best course of action is. Btw, welcome to tpt.

 

[nokturnalkid]

Well, I'm not sure what the aqua and peacock fern is. The mondo grass isn't an aquatic plant and will die soon if kept fully submerged. The amazon sword will quickly outgrow your tank.

The bulbs will be fine to grow low light plants. In my 10gal low tech tank, I have 2x10w fluorescent bulbs. I put some osmocote on the bottom of the tank covered with some inert sand. I have a low bio load(6 otos and some rcs) so I dose dry ferts. I dose minute amounts once a week. I somewhat follow Tom Barr's low tech method. I would stick to lower light demanding plants. Crypts, anubias, floaters and mosses to name a few. With that light and the amount of guppies you are going to get, you can have a nice low tech planted tank. Remember, fish poo = plant fertilizer. If you get the right kind of low demand plants, you may not even need to add anything to the substrate. There's a low tech section in this forum that you might want to check out. There is a ton or info there.

 

[nokturnalkid]

For big box stores, it's all about the benjamin's. I don't mind buying equipment from them since they are sometimes cheaper. Most of my other purchases goes to lfs and supporting other hobbyist. Join a local club,I believe Scape is one of them. Check the sns here on the forum for some cheap healthy plants. Post a wtb(willing to buy) for some low tech plants. I'm sure there's people on here that will be willing to sell you a package. I just sold alot of my crypts and anubias or else I would offer up a package.