need some pointers for starting an aquarium?

Whether the plants will require anything extra depends on how hardy they are. All plants will need some sort of aquarium light on 8-12 hours per day, though. Java Moss won't require anything besides lighting. Other hardy plants that won't require much special care include Java Fern, Anubias, and African Water Fern.

If you are wanting to get into lots of plants, there are a few things you might need. 1) a nutrient rich plant substrate, like Eco-Complete. This will allow you to keep heavy root feeders like Cryptocoryne, and carpeting plants like Dwarf Saggitaria. 2) A fertilizer for the water column. Seachem Flourish Comprehensive is a good one. This will help with plants that get most of their nutrients from the water column, like Water Sprite, Wisteria, and most floating plants. 3) Good lighting. Some plants require higher lighting. 2 watts per gallon will work for most low to moderate care plants. For high maintenance plants, you may need a T-5 flouresecent, or a T-8 flourescent that's 3 watts per gallon. The Kelvin Rating should be 5000 to 6700 Kelvin. 4) For extremely high-maintenance plants, you might also consider getting CO2. But this won't be need except for very high maintenance plants, like Dwarf Hair Grass, HC, Glosso, etc.

You can add the hardy plants before the fish. Having a planted tank can also really speed up the cycling process. Feeder Goldfish are notoriously bad with any sort of plants, though - what they don't eat outright they will uproot or simply shred apart. Also, Goldfish produce way too much waste to be kept in a 10 gallon, and will likely suffer a great deal in an uncycled tank. I strongly recommend you try a fishless cycle with pure Ammonia rather than making a fish sick or even killing one outright by trying to do a fish-in cycle.

The Java Moss shouldn't make anything sick by being there. Although live plants can occasionally carry in diseases. But you can sanitize them before adding them in to prevent that. There are a couple dips you can do. If you are trying moss, which is a fragile plant, an Alum dip would probably be best. You can get Alum at grocery stores in the spice section. In a container outside of the aquarium, put in three tablespoons Alum per 1 gallon of water. Soak the plants in this for 3 hours. After that, rinse the plants thoroughly, allow them to soak in another container of strongly dechlorinated water, and then go ahead and plant them in the aquarium. As long as you dip the plants before adding them, they shouldn't have any negative effect on fish.

Keep in mind that 10 gallons severely limits the type and number of fish you can get.

Ember Tetras, Neon Tetras, and Glowlight Tetras are three species that can work in a tank as small as 10 gallons. Most other Tetras require a 20 gallon or larger aquarium. Tetras are schooling fish, and need at least 6 of their own particular species. 6 Glowlight Tetras would fully stock your aquarium. 8 Ember Tetras would fully stock your aquarium. 10 gallons, in general, only has room for 1 schooling fish, and that's it.

Add plants and start a fishless cycle - use a grocery store shrimp in a nylon bag, or use filter media from the turtle filter, or use pure ammonia, fish you dont like should not be used to cycle your tank for other fish.

Live plants are a pain, consider silk plants. but it doesnt hurt to try plants, as long as you remove dead or dieng parts.

Live plants are fine for every fish and invert. some fish will eat them though, especial, goldfish,many snails,

others..

a 10 gallon is limited in types of fish it can hold. tetras need 20 and up depending on the species. ember tetras are the one exception you could consider. , 6 Cherry barbs, or 6 harlequin rasbora, and a betta fish or an american flag fish, are the best options.

java moss is very hard to kill so that is a good choice. if you're gonna stick with the standard light that comes with hoods like aqueon then that and java fern are probably the only plants that can do well in those conditions. if it's your first fish tank i'd advise against plants because they can be frustrating and a money drainer, but if you insist then that's fine.

plants feed on light, co2, and nutrients. even though java moss is extremely low maintenance, you will still need something for it. get fertilizer such as seachem flourish and, optionally, flourish excel to make up for a lack of co2. you can also get plant substrate like flourite or caribsea eco-complete, but it's costly. if you want to go with standard gravel then get root tabs and put them in it so there's nutrients for the plants. do not go crazy with dosing nutrients and such because that can lead to an algae frenzy. seachem excel has a side effect of killing most algae so if you choose to get that then algae won't be as big of a problem. as far as i know java moss isn't deadly to any fish. if you choose to cycle the tank with goldfish, they might eat it so you have to watch out for that.

you should set up your tank first, add the plants and such, and begin the cycling process. using pure ammonia is more humane than just buying goldfish and it's faster because you don't have to constantly change the water to keep the goldfish alive. you can google how to successfully cycle a tank. don't skip this, because it's the most important part of setting up a tank. you need to get a water testing kit, such as aqueon's master water test kit, in order to know when your tank is cycled. in short, your tank is cycled when ammonia can rapidly be converted to nitrate overnight. the test kit can also help you troubleshoot when there is a problem in the tank so you can rule out if your water quality is bad or not. remember, after you believe your tank is cycled, make sure you do a massive water change to get all the levels to normal. don't forget your water conditioner as well.

also, there aren't many fish you can keep in a 10 gallon so make sure you do research before you add a fish.