"Dave M. Picklyk" empowered us with this mighty blow
against the Patriarchy:

Hey guys...thanx to all your support I've finally ventured into the
unknown and will be starting my CO2 project. I've cut the end off my
intake on my Aquaclear filter intake pipe and put tubing through it.

Hi Dave, this is Dave.

Did you cut the entire end off? You didn't leave enough space to allow
fish to get sucked in, did you? ;-)

Currently I have 2 wpg, (PowerGlo & LifeGlo bulbs), a 15 gallon long
tank, 2 corys, 3 otos, 1 beta, about 1.5 inch river gravel, some java
fern, a little dark green broad leaved bush plant I can't identify.

I'd suggest adding some fast-growing plants, such as hygrophilia
polysperma or water sprite.

Where'd you get the dark green broad leaved bush plant? Keep in mind
that many LFS's will sell you terrestrial plants which may look good at
first, but will die after being submerged in your aquarium for a while.

If you can post a digital picture of the plant, I bet someone in this
newsgroup can identify it.

You might enjoy this page:

http://faq.thekrib.com/plant-list.html

I've added some Ferreal+spureal for iron and trace elements. There's
no traceable nitrates in the aquarium however...and that slightly
worries me-- should I add some KNO3?

You may want to consider observing how your plants grow after adding
CO2, for a while. If it's satisfactory to you ... I personally wouldn't
bother with adding KNO3. Keep things simple. I can never measure
nitrates in my planted tank, I've never added any source of nitrate, and
my plants are doing fine (I trim they every 2 or 3 weeks).