What fish and plants are good for my tank?

Sounds like a 25 gallon, or at least around it.

Get your plants first. In my own tank (10 gallon) I've got bacopa carolinia and telanthrapa cardins (or something like that. Not sure on the spelling...) Both plants are doing well in around 2 watts per gallon and a CaribSea Flora Max substrate. I'm planning on getting another plant similar to the bacopa and some dwarf hair grass. For pictures of the two plants, look at this link; http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t... The bacopa is the green plant.

When you get your plants, you will also want a small bottle of pure (janatorial strength) ammonia. Ace hardware sells it, I know, otherwise I'm sure you can find a bottle on Amazon. Keep in mind that you don't need a whole gallon of the stuff. It only takes a couple drops a dose to work right. The ammonia should have the ingredents of ammonia and water. Nothing more. You don't want just ammonia, but ammonia and water.

Also, make sure you have ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate tests. I use API liquid tests.

Once you have all of those things (plants, ammonia, and the above tests) you will want to fill your tank up with water, plug in your heater, get the water where it should be, rinse the plants off well, start your filter, add your aireator (if you don't have one I recommend one. All it is is a bubble maker.) and then plant your plants. To plant, make a small indent in the gravel with your finger, grab the plant by the stem, push it about half an inch into the gravel, and then fill in the hole. Repeat for the rest of the plants.

Carefully drop in about half a teaspoon of ammonia. Wait ten minutes. Test for ammonia using your tests and following the directions that came with the test. You want to aim for 4 ppm. If it's not quite there, add another half teaspoon or so. Wait ten more minutes, test again and repeat. I'm not sure on how much ammonia it will take.

Test every other day for ammonia. Eventually, you will notice it begin to fall. Wait for it to get to about 1ppm then dose it back to 4ppm again. At this point, start testing for nitrite every other day along with your ammonia tests. After a couple of days you should notice a rise in the ammonia levels. Once you notice this, you are halfway through. At this point, add a small about of fish food to add some nutrients to the water.

After about a week, test for nitrate along with the other two every other day. If the nitrite or nitrate levels get too high that your kit can't read them, do a 50-60% water change. Once you test and find that you have no ammonia, no nitrite, and some nitrate (any level is good.) then you are most likely nearly done. Dose back up to 4ppm of ammonia and wait 24 hours. Test for all three again. If, once again, you get 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and a reading of nitrate, congradulations! All of this waiting has paid off.

Now, feel free to buy as many fish as you want. Until you can get your fish, add about 1ppm of ammonia a day so your bacteria does not starve.

Why is this necissary? Because fish produce ammonia. The ammonia will kill them if it gets too high. Bacteria, which take a while to build up, can take this ammonia and make it into nitrite. From there, the bacteria makes it into nitrate. Nitrate is not bad until it's above 40ppm. Ammonia is toxic at any level, and deadly at 4ppm, sometimes even lower than that.

Here's a link to a how too: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/the-almos...

Now about fish; A nice schooling tank would look pretty.

I'd say about 5 neon tetras,

5 male guppies

5 rasboras (harlequin, scissor tail)

Or 5 of any non agressive, non fin nipping fish that is less than 3 inches fully grown.

Or, a species only tank.

10-13 tiger barbs

(Nice fish, just a little aggressive for a community tank.)

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/

http://aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php

your tank is 15 gallons. you do not have a huge amount of options but you definitely have some!

no tetras, they need at least a 20 gallon!, they are really pretty sensitive!. Absolutly no angel fish!!, or redtail sharks or rainbow sharks, those last 3 types of fish need 50 + gallons! And a much higher level of experience!

silk plants are generally the best. live plants can be hard to keep.

some fish options -

6-7

harlequin rasbora or other dwarf or micro rasbora, as long as they are all the same species, or cherry barbs, You might be able to add a betta later down they road, but its a good idea to have a back up plan , not all bettas tolerate company, not evan the females.

3-7 same sex guppies or platies or a mix that includes at least 3 of each, and the should really all be the same sex.

how many gallons is it. sounds like a 10 or 20gl tank. if your getting live plants then I sujest for starters java ferns, and amazon sword.---fish---I would do some tatras or barbs. maybe small angelfish. My favorite fish for my 20gl is red tail shark. they are a very sturdy fish and grow up to 6 or 8 inches.

Buy a unicorn and let him decide.

(Salt water or fresh?)