Nano planted tank CO2 and lighting requirements

[qwerty123456]

Hello, I used to keep fish when I was younger, but had to take break from it because I was constantly moving.
Now that I'm finally getting myself a place of my own, I wanna start out with a relatively simple tank.

The tank I've planned out is just a simple 12in/30cm(27l) cube with a short carpet and a grey centerpiece rock.

The plant I wanna use is Dwarf Baby Tears, but I've only kept low maintenance planted tanks with no CO2 and low light, so I guess I'm kinda setting myself up for failure here.
I know this plant is said to be really hard to keep for people with not much prior planted tank experience, but I don't wanna settle for easier stuff because of how much better this one looks.

The main questions of this post are:
1. What is the minimum requirement for this plant to do reasonably well in my tank? (The tank is 12in deep.)
2. Do you have any recommendations for stocking? Personally I really enjoy quirky odd fish, but I know the stocking options are really limited due to the tank being only 27l.
Some fish I've been looking at lately are:
-peacock gudgeon pair
-elassoma gilberti (but really unlikely due to them being really rare in Europe)
-pea puffers(I've bred them before in 15G, so I feel really comfortable with them)
-scarlet badis 1M+2F
(also if that wasn't clear enough I'm listing these as options not as a stocking list)

If I posted in the wrong category, I'm really sorry, but I couldn't find anything more accurate. Also sorry for my English.

 

[Sunnyspots]

Regarding the stocking, have you looked on seriouslyfish.com to see recommendations for tank dimensions and size for different fish? I suspect your tank may be a little small for your ideas, although I don't know all the fish you are considering. The website will help.
And your English seemed excellent to me!

 

[Essjay]

Do you know if your water is soft or hard?

Peacock gudgeons need soft to middling water (and a tank at least 45 x 30 x 30 cm)
Scarlet badis are OK in soft to hard water
Puffers need hard water.

To be honest, in this sized tank I would look at puffers if you have hard water or one of the Boraras species if you have soft water. Both the gudgeons and badis really need bigger tanks.

 

[Wills]

Sounds like you want an Iwagumi style tank They do look really cool but not great for keeping paired or solo fish as they provide little natural cover, especially if this is your only tank. Have you looked at the Brazilian style of aquascaping which is a bit of an evolution of Iwagumi that uses stem plants as well as carpeting plants and I just think if you want things like Badis or Peacock Gudgeons this would be appreciated for a bit more cover. Even if it was adding a bit of regular hair grass and some rotala to the back or around the back of the rocks?

In terms of your set up for using HC as the carpet you will need a high tech set up with Co2 injection, decent lighting, nutrient rich substrate like Amazona or Tropica Soil and regular liquid ferts. Since you are using RO I would suggest going soft and choosing fish to suit.

Which equipment you go with will depend on your budget I personally like the Twinstar range of lights, they are proven quality, look great and are controlable with an adaptor. Chihiros are worth a look on the budget side I have an A Series light that I really like but cheaper than the Twinstar - not comparable in out put but my Twinstar SM2 was around £250 and the Chihiros was £20. For your Co2 the best route I've found is with a fire extinguisher but regular cylinders work well too and you can even use Soda Stream cans too, make sure you get a good quality regulator as Co2 is really dangerous if something goes wrong, if you've ever used a fire extinguisher you will know just how powerful the pressure is. On a small tank I'd recommend using an inline diffuser rather than an intank one as it will take up less space. Check out the Oase Filtosmart range for filters as you can get them with external heaters which again will help keep the scape nice and clean from equipment.

Wills