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I've been interested in naturalizing my tanks(my family is fanaticly insistant that this can only be done with saltwater tanks). Now I have 2 tanks, a 10 gallon tanks w/ one ciclid and a 29 gal. w/ several fish. Right now neither have any live plants. So my questions are simply.
1. As far as plants go, can any be used w/ just gravel, or do I have to change to a sand bottom?
2. What would be recomended for a tank w/ a blue jewel ciclid in it?

Hi,
Is this your fish?
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_socolofi.php

If so, keeping plants with it is not a good idea. As you
will note, they dig through the substrate constantly and
that would uproot the plants (unless you put them in
ceramic pots). If this is your fish, you would need to keep
the pH up around 8.x and the GH should be very high as
well.

Maintaining these water requirements can be easily done
by using a carbonate for the substrate and using limestone
rocks for ornaments. Crushed limestone, dolomite, or coral
would be fine for the substrate and because the tank is
small, I'd keep the substrate depth shallow around 1 inch
over all, to allow for more swimming room.
Frankly, if this is the fish, it needs at least a 30G tank
and some company.

If this is your fish:
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_jewel.php
If this is your fish, it grows HUGE and you definitely
want a much larger tank, say a 55G tank.
Again, plants in these tanks seem to be in the way of
their normal housekeeping. In many cases the plants are
uprooted so that they can see their neighbor and what it
is up to (stalking, threatening, etc.) And, in other cases
the plants are shredded and die.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by naturalizing your tanks? Just adding some plants, making the tanks look like the environment the fish are found in the wild, or doing a full no equipment, no filters setup?

Most plants can be grown with just gravel. Some though may require fertilizer spikes shoved down under them occasionally and some have such large root systems that several inches more gravel is needed than is normally used in nonplanted tanks.

Cichlids come from rocky waters. Usually a cichlid tank is setup with lots of limestone rocks to raise the ph and hardness of the water as well as better mimicking their native environment. They are usually diggers uprooting most plants you use in your tank. They also tend to appreciate sand substrate. When plants are added to a cichlid tank most people stick with tough, low light plants that grow on rocks instead of in the substrate such as anubias or java fern.