RF: One of the things about planted tanks is that they must be thick with plants, almost end to end and side to side. with some swimming room up front. Maybe they will mass by weight 1000 to 1 plants to fish.

That was why lomelindi suggested hornwort. It is fast growing, thrives in hard water and, while it grows a couple of inches a day under strong lighting, will survive with less light. (And as DJ pointed out to an unbelieving unc, can even be anchored in the gravel, despite having no roots.)

By the way, the "Javas" are not real fast growing. The only time I saw fast growing Java moss (climbing out of the tank and commandeering the filter box) was with a 125-gallon set up with some high powered lighting and a CO2 injector. There are a lot of floating and "bunch" plants which are faster growers. They are the plants the pond people call "oxygenators" because they grow and photosynthesize so fast that in the middle of they day the plants are "pearling" or releasing oxygen into the water.

I've offered this link before
http://www.alfanita.com/fishroom_e.htm
but their tanks are just getting into the planted territory where a lot of the waste is taken by plants. They still have filtration and do regular water changes.

That UG (undergravel filter) discussion is worthy of our attention too. I once spent part of a pleasant evening discussing that, at an open house, with Shedd Aquarium aquarist Ralph Bodemer. He was in charge of the legendary "Tropicals Room" which enchanted generations of kids into becoming aquarists. Those were planted (with a combo of plastic and live plants by the way) and had UG filters. Ralph contended that one could grow plants with carefully cleaned UG filters.

However they need to be clean enough that they keep flowing and not go anaerobic. They also must not be so clean that the plants lack nutrients. Ralph had assistants and weekend volunteers and files on when each tank was cleaned. Since there is no way in the world I would ever be able to do all that, I have banished UG filters from my fishroom except for a very rare specialty spawning set-up and maybe raising small fry.

And even Shedd couldn't grow certain plants - hence the plastic ones. And once in a while they had hair algae, which, as much as I dislike it, can be a sign of a healthy aquarium, albeit one with too many plant nutrients in it. ;)

As to the Inkmaker. I'll let you use the Google search function. You will get lots of hits (just for Guppylog) on him. This much of a hint: he is an experienced and innovative aquarist who does use scientific insights to make plan ol' aquarium keeping more fun. If it is working right, it is fun.

Anything thing in life, whether playing some mean guitar riffs or setting up an aquarium so the fish cheerfully spawn, takes some effort and preparation.