I've recently added some of these to my (early stages) planted tank - Brazilian Micro Sword (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis) http://www.fishforum...s-brasiliensis/
Mine doesn't look as grassy as the picture in that link yet though. I'm still waiting for it to fill the gaps in the chessboard planting pattern I put them in with.
For lighting I'm experimenting with an evolving custom spectrum ratio of LEDs from http://www.rapidled.com/ , about to order some more (got 14 total for a 4x2x2 tank at the moment, 5 red, 1 far red, 1 UV, 1 green, 3 cool white, 1 blue, 2 royal blue). Will be adding 4-6 each of royal blue & cool white because my tank looks a bit too Christmassy at the moment .
It's a bit cheaper than buying one premade, and they have solderless LEDs if you don't want to get too geeky with it.
+1 for Ehiem filtration. I've opted for dual smaller canisters (2213), one in each corner. Experimenting with DIY CO2 for now until I can justify the expense of a proper setup. So far so good.
Good luck with your setup, sounds similar to what I'm trying to do (about 2 months into it), but instead of shrimp I'm going for catfish (so it's a woody aquascape), with a school of rasboras above. Careful with the shrimp, Fisheries are pretty harsh on them lately.
Edited by smirq, 15 August 2013 - 12:25 PM.