with pressurised CO2 its worth making sure you get a good setup. I made the mistake of going cheap to start with and had huge problems before sending it back, twice.

Our kits in the UK are more than yours over there, planted tanks are still very much a novelty here and hardly anyone catters for us properly, which is annoying to say the least.

Tom and Hoppy will be best to let you know what the rough costs would be State-side worth doing though, really alot. Well, essential in my opinion. Stable CO2 is probably the most important aspect, and the one that most mess up.