My tank is 2.5 by 1.5 by 1.5 feet, sand substrate. I decided to stick with sand because corys love it. Anyway, I've had this tank for about two years and haven't really had that much success with plants. I also have a bristle-nose pleco L138 that tends to uproot some plants when it swims around.

It's a low tech set up. No CO2, I dose Flourish Excel once every two days and Flourish twice weekly. My existing plants include red and green ozelot sword, amazon sword I think, tiger lotus, some cryptocoryne wendtii and some variation of vallisneria.

Any suggestions for plants that suit a sand substrate?

And how about suitable background plants?

Appreciate the advice.