Hoods and Lighting
Now that you have most of your items for your aquarium you should make sure you have a hood. They are very important to keep the heat in the aquarium and to keep fish from jumping out. A hood will also keep any materials from going in the aquarium like dust. When you get a hood you should get one with glass at the bottom of the light to keep water from evaporating up into the light so you wont have to buy a new light later. If you are going to use any sprays on your house, your hood wont completely protect it, you should use towel to lay over the aquarium to act as a filter.
Lighting is also very important. Most fish and plants like some light. Some of the fish that don't you don't need a light for but then you don't have a big selection on the plants that need light which is a lot of them. It is best if you use a light even for the fish that don't like it, I use it on my piranhas and they don't like light but I want to keep a plant in there so I use a light. For fish that don't like light you should tape the bottom of the hood on the glass with electrical tape to decrease the amount of light that goes into the aquarium.
There are two different types of lighting you can get with your hood and they are incandescent and fluorescent. Incandescent bulbs are cheaper but the cost for the replacement bulbs in the long run is expensive as the fluorescent bulbs. Incandescent gives off more heat than the fluorescent and it is on the red and yellow side of the spectrum, which is unsuitable for growing plants.
Fluorescent generates less heat and lasts years compared to the incandescent. There are different colored bulbs to help bring out the fishes color better, helps the plants grow faster and better.