I have read post after post about planted tanks and I just get more confused so I am going to post a couple of questions here. I am putting together a 55 gallon tank. I have two fluorescent lights and 2 A-620 AquaClear 110 Power Filters. I would like to put cichlids in the tank along with the plants. I am going to use a couple of pieces of driftwood and some rocks to make it look as natural as possible. Here are my questions:

1. Is this set-up even possible?
2. Can I use a gravel substrate or do I have to use sand for the plants?
3. Other than a heater, what else do I need to make this happen (I have seen posts about CO2 and such)?

1. Anything is possible.
2. Yes, you can use just gravel. You may want to consider a layered approach though. 1" peat moss, 1" play sand, 1" Pro's Choice Select (or gravel)
3. You don't need CO2 unless you have fancy high light plants and high wattage bulbs. Air pumps and stones are used by many though.

What is the total wattage of the lights you're putting on? What type of light bulb (t5ho, t8, t12, etc)?

Have you purchased those AC110's yet? Amazon prices them at $50+ a pop. In my opinion, you can get way more filtration for 100 bucks. Look at the AquaTop CF-400. Have you decided what type of Cichlids you want?

Some Cichlids like to eat plants, so you need plants that are a bit sturdy. I'll let those more knowledgeable in the subject name specific varieties.

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I bought this set-up used off craigs list. It came with the filters and lights. I have not purchased any bulbs for the lights yet as I am not exactly sure what to get.

What type of bulbs go in to the fixture? I use 6500k florescent t12 tubes

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1 fixture takes 2 shorter bulbs. They are Coralife Colormax Freshwater Lamp F20 T12 360 BP. The other takes 1 long bulb. It is Marineland F40T10 Natural Daylight.

Most larger cichlids would be happy to destroy your plants and 'scaping for you. Lol, angels are fine, so are rams, apistos, and kribs. Dwarf cichlids would work as well, i think. I'm not really a cichlid person though, so I can't really say more than that.

For the plants, something that matters as much as, or more than the substrate is the kelvin rating of the lights. You'll want at least a 6,500k light, which is quite common, and really as strong of a kelvin rating as is really necessary. That particular type of light emulates natural sunlight. Also, what is the wattage of the lights? That dictates what plants you can have more than the substrate does. I have plants growing great in gravel, so no need for sand if you don't want it. There are also a few plants that don't require substrate at all, and those in particular are quite easy, with few needs aside from low light levels (having fish, ferts, stronger- but not too strong- lighting all help too).

That being said, what you require depends on how much work you want to put into your tank. There are high light, high maintenance tanks and low light, low maintenance tanks, and everything in between. Usually it's the watts per gallon level of light that dictates how high or how low tech your tank is, but that's not a rule that's set in stone.

Usually if you've got >1 watt per gallon (add up the wattage of your lights, divide by the gallons of tank) it's a low light set up.
Between 1-2 watts per gallon is medium to medium high light
Higher than that is a high light set up and usually requires all the fancy do dahs, like CO2, ferts, ect. Of course, those are usually much more difficult to maintain.
Any tank though can have all that, and your plants will thank you for it. Just the same, most plants will grow or at least just sit there even if you don't have all the fancy stuff, they just usually grow better with higher tech.
I, for one, advocate for low light, low maintenance...why? Because I'm lazy and like to sit back and enjoy my tanks instead of working on them all the time, that's why :D

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Lead me not to temptation...I can make it there myself just fine, thank you

Your selection of cichlids is going to determine what plants will work well for you. Dwarf cichlids will be fine with just about any plants, as will discus and angels. Larger Central and South American cichlids like geophagus, jaguars, etc can be pretty destructive to a layout simply due to their size and rambunctiousness.

If your plan is African cichlids, then there are really only a few plants you can use. Most African cichlids are fairly voracious herbivores and will enjoy the "salad" you just bought them. Some thicker leaved anubius should be ok though.

Regular aquarium gravel is fine for almost all the plants you're likely to find at a big box pet store and most lfs's.

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Clay Turville
Southern Oak Aquatics