The newbie

[jm82792]

Well for a very long story , I am into Carnivorous plants I grow around like 65 species so it is a major hobby. I have a 55 gallon tank with 5 inches of water an aquarium heater then some glass mason jars holding up a plastic grate them my plants. The aquarium heater keeps them slightly warm the water itself is mostly around 78F.
So I thought why not add some aquatic bladderwort (a Carnivore) then I thought maybe some fish then it went form there. So now I am wanting to add aquarium gravel,a canister filter,CO2 yeast reactor(maybe),easy quick growing plants to overwhelm the algae by removing the trace minerals and since my tank has a 4 foot high output shop light I could add some small flourscent side lights for the aquatic plants.
So my dad like 25 years ago used to have salt water aquarium since he at the same time worked at an aquarium shop so he was excited and said some catfish and tropicals. Now I realize the runoff from the plants won't be tolerated so I'd add large trays to take care of that. So the questions what fish would do well in that warm of a water(my dad says colorfull tropicals and catfish) and the tank's size(5.5 inches up 20 gallons of water or so) . Since he has not done fish for like 2.5 decades I just wanted to know like what species of aquatic plants would be best that would oxygenate the water well and I was thinking of doing more of a Japanese style like lots of plants and not too many fish. Then finally can I do very small lilies or other flowering aquatics ?
Thank you for reading this very long list of questions,
To save on typing I know what cycling is and some basics.
Oh I'm 15 and live in the Oregonian Coast