What Do You Want?
Welcome Josh,
Quite honestly as Tom Barr said, it really depends on what you want out of the tank.
I guess I was just trying to be tactful.
Nevertheless, I have to say, Wow that is a lot o’ light! I would definitely go with one light, that, I think will make life a lot easier for you.
Nevertheless, it is what you want, I just can’t think of too many plants that require that kind of light. Light really does drive the process, more light generally more nutrients, think of CO2 as a nutrient, more need for trimming and so forth.
Dry fertilizers are easy, I like
Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Home. You may wish to look at the whole Estimative Index (EI) at
http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/ don’t get too hung up on the hows and whys (unless that is your interest). For most of us, all we need to know is that we are providing our plants with a bit more of everything than they need; this is where frequent water changes really come into play.
I confess I am a water change freak. With a 29-gallon tank, water changes shouldn’t be that big a deal.
Drop checkers; I use test tubes and a little vinyl hose.
Depending on the role aesthetics play in your life, you could get creative and use interesting bottles, or take up glass blowing, bending or slumping.
I don’t know any way of making a reference solution (4dKH water) without starting with distilled or deionized (DI) water.
Raising the lights up to you, even with only one bulb that is a pretty good bit of light, again, it depends on what is available and how important aesthetics are to you.
As far as plants, what do want? Are you a creative designer, an artist? Do want to keep certain kinds of or families of plants?
I do believe in starting out with many plants, I think it make the early stages go easier.
Biollante