Starting a low tech planted tank, need some advice

[festaedan]

Hey guys, now that the 300 is were I want it, I can now focus on other tanks.
I've always been intriged by aquarium plants but have never been able to grow much except for java moss and anubias tied to a piece of driftwood. Everything else either melts away or gets eaten because I didnt realize a certain fish would actually tear up plants. Now that my birthday is rolling around and I'll have the money to revamp my 120.
The stock will be various smaller south americans probably consisting of acaricthys heckelli, geophagus sp. red head tapajos, a guinacara species, maybe a pair of apistos, something from the aequidens or cichlasoma genus, various plecos and other small catfish, and some wild type swords. I can give and exact list once Jeff answers my email
The tank will be filtered by a rena xp3 full of bio media and the current lighting is a 36" twin tube aga (probably t5) light. The tank is 60" so I'm not sure if its quite long enough but it lights up the tank well. That leads to my first question. Is this light long or powerful enough?
If not, will this work? http://www.amazon.com/BeamsWork-Sin...&qid=1441589205&sr=1-2&keywords=odyssea+light
And if that doesnt, what will be a better lighting option? I'm open to anything as long as its cheap.
My second question is, what is the best substrate? Its on a budget and I'm planning on spending most of the money on fish. The tank currently has about an inch of gravel but I prefer sand. Would either work, or will I need something else? I'm planning on defenitely having some anubias tied to some driftwood, some hardy swords or vals, or whatever other hardy, relatively cichlid safe plants I can find. Also, would I be able to put a thin layer of sand on top of this substrate for asthetics and so the geos can sift through the sand?
And my last question, are the fish I named above able to coegsist with plants without tearing them apart? What are plants that would be good with them?
Any help is greatly apreciated
Thanks!

 

[Jt731]

What does low tech mean to you? No ferts? No co2? not spending 100s of dollars on substrate?

My planted tanks are low maintenance. I've taken from all the different stuff and I have two tanks that the only real maintenance is cutting growth. I don't add fertilizer

First, substrate. I started off getting into plants and I read Dianne Walstad's book. If you want to do low tech read this book. Basically, my substrate is an inch of miracle grow potting soil (I've used mix and soil both) capped with an inch of sand. Cheap! And thanks to everything in the soil, I don't fertilize at all.

Second, light. your biggest issue is how deep your 120 is. I'd look at the different lights in the lighting section of planted tanks.net and figure out how many fixtures you'll need or the par of your lights. And this will be a lot of what plants you can use. Take a look at http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=105774

I do inject co2 which pushes my tanks out of low tech land, but it really helps and there are plenty of cheap ways to do it.

As for fish tearing up plants, there are a few things. One, is if the fish are killing plants by digging up substrate, you can plant them in pots to help this. If they are tearing up the leaves, well, not a lot you can do. I've kept tons of dwarf apistos and Rams in planted tank