Ok so the mission is a nice looking heavily planted tank to raise snails in? Would you like to raise ghost shrimp in it as well? (its easy if your not going for fish...or very small ones..I have one kind in mind but I will have to go to my LFS to find out what they are.)
Ok Here is how I did my 75g tank at start up and my plants go nuts in there with very little 'stuff' added for them.
First off is that just plain sand in the tank?
If yes, pull it out and go get some cheap non fertilized potting soil without the Styrofoam ball in it and a very ratty pillow case, it will be trash when your done with it. Put a few cups of it in the pillow case and throw in in a pot of water on the stove. Take it to a low simmer, Change the water in the pot, Repeat at least 4-5 times till the water stops being really muddy. It will never be clear just less muddy, This will sterilize the soil and help it stay under the sand. Go get a small box of laterite, rinse it semi well. Mix that with the potting soil so that its 1/4-1/2" thick on the bottom. Top that with 1/4-1/2" of well washed sand. Add your water.
As far as your filter just look for something without a whole lot of flow... One rated for a 5-10g will work nicely. You need something that wont blow the plants all over the place.
Ok, for lighting.... Try to get 2-3 watts per gallon. Make sure its a full spectrum bulb.
Or... If your not one of those algae haters, put it near a window and keep your current bulb, if its full spectrum. But you will get a fair amount more algae that way.... But you will get a fair amount either way.....
Go get a big jug of flourish excel and a box of root tabs, fertilizer tablets your stick in the sand (they last for a few months so you wont need a huge box).
For plants you can grow anything you want! Just stay away from the huge ones like sword plants. But with the setup I'm recommending you should not have any restrictions on what you get other than potential size.
I do recommend that you start with only one of each kind. There are some plants that just wont grow for some people, so if it dies on you just get something different.
If I had a clue on how to ship plants in this weather.... or any weather for that matter
I would send you a bunch from my tanks for cheap along with plenty of free snails
(anyone have a clue how and could give me instructions?)
As far as snails go many will eat plants..... Malaysian trumpet snails will not, but they have the hardest shells of all the snails so your puffer may have issues with them. I still recommend them for your tank as they live most of the time in the sand and will help keep it stirred so you wont get gas pockets in it.... I will have to figure out what kinds I have... I have 2 other types that don't seem to eat plants.
Oh, another big thing is you will need to put a sea shell or 2 in there. It will add the needed calcium for the snails so that they wont deplete the calcium levels in the water and throw off the PH, also it will help them have strong shells so that they will grow well for you.
Shove the root tabs down into the sand near your plants roots. You should only need to use 4-5 of them so place them so that they will be near a few plants rather than one for each plant, It does the job just as well but its cheaper that way.
With a heavily planted tank for just snails and shrimp you wont need to wait on a cycle. Just put the plants in and wait a week before adding your critters.
I think I covered all you should need for start up at the moment... Oh you will need a heater as well.... Thats all I can think of at the moment. Ask any and all questions that you need to and I will try to answer them as best as I can
12/21/2009, 5:57 pm
WOW I didn't think I wrote that much! 
