Plants also grow great in a gravel and sand mix. Gravel can be purchased at your local aquarium shop and sand can be purchased in Menards or Home Depot . Also, some fish like Oscars rip out plants while they play, make sure your fish does not do this. Here are some of my common recommendations if getting plants. Get appropriate lighting.
Florescent bulbs work the best.
Double bulb florescent works great for plants with higher lighting needs. The most common guidelines used in simple planted tanks is to leave the lights on about 10-12 hours a day, and use at least 1 Watt of fluorescent lighting for every 2 liters of tank capacity. I'd shy away from iridescent lighting in general even if you don't have plants. It makes the Aquarium look shitty in my opinion. Use anything but an under gravel filtration system because it is just plain messy.