Newbie Plant Set Up 5 Gallon Tank

So I got a 5 gallon Marineland Nook kit that included a filter with flow control and I'm running a heater. I got Nat Geo sand substrate and have been running the tank for 3 days. I do have 2 African Dwarf frogs currently in the tank and I am monitoring the water quality and changing the water 25-30% every other day like a fish-in cycling process.

Questions:

1) I've heard having live plants are optimum for a small 5 gallon set up to keep the chemical balance of the water. Is this true?

2) What steps do I need to do to keep the plants alive and thriving? I have the LED light that came with the tank and some sunlight comes into the room during the day. I turn off lights at night. I did buy some liquid plant food that's made by Aqueon and I'm adding small amounts almost daily. Am I on the right track?

3) I planted 3 different plants. Is this a good number? Bought them at Petsmart.

Pic



Also can anyone tell me what plants I bought? Like a total noob I tossed the containers cause I was quickly trying to plant them in the substrate. I believe the background plant is a Sword.

 

Here are better pics of the plants:

 

the two on the left side from back to front are amazon sword-(large broad leaves). and wisteria. the amazon sword is a heavy root feeder and may do better if you bury a flourish or apI root tab near its roots. it tends to get large under the right conditions but will probably stay small in your tank .
the wisteria is in the emersed form meaning different leaf structure as it was grown above water and will typically change to the submerged form if given higher light underwater.

the third plant looks like some type of fern. not sure if it is fully aquatic meaning it may eventually die underwater.

plants do help any size aquarium as they use the fish wastes for plant food helping with tank balance. the led lights in that tank are very low light meaning the 2 plants will probably survive but probably not thrive.

 

Knowing what PetSmart around me sells, I'd guess the fern looking plant is a peacock fern, and not fully submersible. If you bought the tube ones, they say in very small print if they are fully submersible or not on the tubes. I'd keep an eye on that one, as it may very well completely die on you soon.

I have not had good luck with wisteria, but my swords are all thriving in low-light setups. Don't be surprised if yours does the same

 

If that fern dies, what would be a good replacement?

 

I would recommend anubia nana, anubia frazeri, or java fern they usually do well in low light set ups. with these don't bury the rhizome(the base horizontal stalk) completely under the sand just the roots. you can also attach the anubia if you want to that blue decoration with some string as well as its roots wlll self attach after several weeks.

 

Looks like a sword, water wisteria, and peacock fern to me. The sword is probably an amazon sword, but I'm not 100% on that one.

 

Crypts could work too if you want something to plant in the substrate instead of tie on.