Hi, personally I like the harlies, they look dull in the sale tanks, but when you get them home they colour up beautifully (check out my thread My Fishy Fotos). They are stunning when the water is just right, they take on a violet hue, WOW!
The betta may find the current tough to deal with at first, mine stayed out of it for the first little while, and I kept it turned down as well. He started 'surfing' in it like the harlies do LOL, now that's something to see. Their wild environment is stagnant pools of water, but they must get water flow once in a while, they seem to be pretty adaptable. Mine does have tail and fin rot right now and I'm not sure what caused it, and I'm having mixed success treating it. Fow the most part he's fine but the tail is not growing back yet and sometimes seems to be getting smaller. I think it happened when I turned the filter down after having it up for so long, and it has not affected any other fish in the tank. So I'm not sure if you still want to try a betta, they are great fish and they get along with other fish as well.
Why fake for now? In a smaller tank it is easier to keep the plants happy and filling the tank with plants is cheaper too. I planted mine with mostly extras from my 25g and only bought a few plants. I have noticed too that you can kill 2 birds with one stone now and buy driftwood with java fern, and anubias attached and established already. Totally convenient! But don't let me tell you what to do, I just couldn't imagine doing a tank with fake plants now that I have been well and truly bitten by the planted-tank bug! And it's not a curable condition either.
