Algae?

[Halawrence]

How many live plants? A classic combo would be a ( live plants now) a Sword plant in the center,Vallisneria in back,and small Crypts in front. Simple,hardy plants. A five gallon is pretty small. You might go Java fern in center,dwarf sword plant around it. I can't promise success. When you are new? You have to take a few lumps on the learning curve. It can be a fine line between thriving and dead plants.

Yeah I am new to this. I dont want to get a larger tank until I am settled and quit moving around. Eventually I want to add one nerite snail to help with the algae. My original plan was to just add one live plant. Let that one establish before I fully switch out my fake ones

 

[utahfish]

Low light plants like anubius and java fern are good starter plants. They get majority of their nutrients from water column and need water that has a bit of calcium in it as they have harder leaves. Swords are good as well but not sure there are any to fit in a 5 gallon.
Maybe a pygmy chain sword or micro sword, both carpeting plants that spread but need medium to high light and a nutrient rich substrate.
Alot of people will use moss balls in smaller tanks because they prefer shaded tanks and are heavy nitrate feeders.
Floating plants like wisteria water sprite and anacharis are commonly used as well in smaller tanks because one can trim them to the size of the tank.
Crypts are another lower light plant but need a nutrient rich substrate as they are heavy root feeders.
If you wanted real easy just get some duck weed, it grows like a weed is a small floating plant will consume a ton of nitrates/ammonia from the tank, provides shade and will never die and may takeover your tank your room your life ending in your untimely demise.
Good luck!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Duckweed I find actually hard to grow. Salvinia on the other hand is a super good plant. It’s easy to grow and it spreads fast. I hate to disagree with you again, but Crypts aren’t that easy to grow either.

I recommend you get a lot of Anacharis, 1 java fern, and 1 Anubias to start out with. Maybe some moss balls if your LFS has them in stock. (Also get the Salvinia)