20L or 20H for planted tank?

I've always heard 20L was better but the specs I find are all for 20 tall with low tech planted tanks. I want to get the planted tank thing right.

I also am considering a 29 but probably will stick to 20...

Eco complete for substrate. Confused about light fixtures. I'm also considering a nutrafin co2 system which is like a DIY system only... I don't have to DIY. Lol. Only downside I see is that the ladder/dispenser it comes with can get small fish stuck behind it. Any idea how to remedy it?

Also... Fertilizers... Do you dose everything separately or do you use one fertilizer?

I like 20L because the dimensions are more pleasing to my eye. I also like that you don't need a lot of wattage for lights and you have a lot more ground space. However, the tall plants need to be trimmed a lot more often in a 20L than tall because you just don't have a lot of vertical space. I just used a couple clip desk lamps with the "day" CF light bulbs and that worked awesome for my 20L planted tank. $5 per fixture and a couple dollars more for bulbs. Just make sure you get the right light spectrum (can't remember off hand, but if you go to a planted tank forum you should be able to find it quickly). I never did any of the other fancy stuff, used plant substrate and then layered the black tahitian sand on top of that.

What kind of plants/fish did you keep? How about filter?

I'm looking at coralife 30" T5 with a 6600k and color max bulbs as I found a nice tank with that in place. Cheaper would be nice though.

I've had problems in the past with algae and also plants melting. Rigt now I just have plastic plants in there. I'd like to try again and do more research to get it right on a larger tank. Not sure what went wrong exactly. And reading fish keeping forums sort of sounds like a foreign language.

I like the look of 20L better too an te lighting being better is something I've thought of too.

Tall tanks are a pita to get lighting to the bottom, smaller surface area for lighting, yet more water to try and get light through to the bottom. I have a tall corner tank and I had to resort to led lighting.