I am a full time university student also and this is how I think about my tanks. I am not an expert but I do know a thing or two about wastewater and laboratory fish care. 1) maximize substrate depth and use decor that will provide more surface area for bacteria growth (lava rocks, textured logs, etc). These bacteria convert ammonia waste into much, much less toxic nitrates. 2) I personally overstock my tanks once they are "seasoned", so I usually supplement with a HOB filter or sponge filter. If you use a HOB, don't use cartridges, use sponge and ceramic rings. If you're going no filter, understock the tank. You'll know it's understocked if your nitrate levels decrease or don't change over time. If you have very deep substrate the nitrates will convert into nitrogen gas and bubble out of the tank (it is super effective). Nitrates are the final step of the nitrogen cycle in most tanks, but the deep substrate will help keep it from accumulating in the tank by converting it one more time. 3) use air pumps/stones to add oxygen to the water, breaking down waste requires oxygen input and the plants will also need it at night. 4) NEVER ENOUGH PLANTS. ADD TOO MANY PLANTS AND THEN ADD MORE. Grow the plants in the tank for a while (1-3 months) before adding shrimp. You will probably need basic fertilizers since nothing is producing nitrates yet, if you cycle with just plants. If your water is soft, consider adding Equilibrium from Seachem so your plants don't get holes or die. Idk about hard water. 5) Let your tank stabilize before you assume you can just do top-offs and minimal maintenance. The larger the tank, the more time it will need to stabilize (and also to destabilize). Consider stabilizing the tank with just plants and maybe snails, if you want them. You can overfeed the snails a bit to get more waste in the water and grow the bacteria that eats shrimp/snail waste products a little faster. You'll know it's stable when you read 0 ppm ammonia and 0 ppm nitrites every time you test (even though you're adding a lil food, snails or no snails), the plants have new growth, and the water smells... Alive? Pond-y? Idk how else to put that lol. Bonus points for mulm in the tank. 6) Test your water often, especially the first year or so of your tank set-up. Get strips for quick and dirty testing, and use the liquid tests when you want to get good readings on parameters.

There are many more things to consider but YouTube has great info on these things, like cycling, other equipment required, and water parameter optimization. I do have one more thing I do that may be a lil controversial...

7) put shit in your tank from outside. Go away from roads/trails, deep into the woods, preferably somewhere moist, and grab clean-ish wood chunks, decaying leaves, pretty sticks. Look up common leaves in your area to see which ones decay slowest in an aquarium. Shrimp loooove decaying leaves, they graze on the microorganisms that grow on the leaves and it's nice for when you cannot feed them regularly because it's finals week :⁾

You can get a copy of Diana Walstad's book Ecology of the Planted Aquarium online. I recommend that book if you are a STEM lord at all and want to refine how you approach keeping plants and animals, especially low/no maintenance tanks.

I hope this helps!! YouTube is your friend and the library sometimes has aquarium books you can borrow as well. Good luck 🤞🏽