Thank you Leigh and Eric for answering my post. Phew!! I feel much
relieved.

I'll go with the eclipse and the low light plants for now and see where
that takes me. There's room for another tank if I really get into it
grin. I think I see an empty space in the living room...

Thank you Leigh for the extra tips on the plants! There is still much to
learn. I will definitely check out the wendtii.

And thank you Eric for clearing up my concerns on the betta community,
filtration, retrofit, water quality, etc. (I forgot about the heater!).
You make it sound much easier than I thought. It seems that your posts
complemented each other very well.

The Eco Complete sounds intriguing, but I think I'll be boring and stay
with the flourite. Black would be kinda neat tho. And I guess I wouldn't
have to wait a month for the tank to cycle. I figured I'd take some of
the water, or the bit of gravel and the plastic plant out of the betta
bowl and throw it in the eclipse to see if that would help any. It seems
kinda cruel to use fish...

I can't wait to get started! (The tank has been sitting in the box for
about a week!)