Beginer Questions

[FishDoc]

I recently moved my 75 gal reef tank into a 225 gal reef tank and am now considering what to do with the old 75 gal tank. I also have a 60 gal hex with discus and a 20 gal community tank. I was thinking of combining those two into the 75 and setting it up as a planted tank with discus and tetras.
My questions before I get started are these:
1) I have the lights I used when the tank was a reef set-up-a hood with four 55 watt PC bulbs, currently 2 10,000K and 2 actinic. Can I use the same hood for plants? Do I need to change the bulbs to different temp. ratings? What should I get?
2) Can I successfully run such a set-up without supplemental CO2?
3) What should I plan to use for substrate?
4) What would be a good stocking density of fish for that set-up? I currently have 2 blue diamond discus each about 4-5", 4 clown loaches each 3-4", 10 neon tetras, 10 pristilla tetras, 3 penguin tetras, 2 pictus cats, and a sailfin pleco. Is that too heavy of a fish load for a planted 75 tank? I would ideally like to add more discus.
5) Can you point me to some good books or web articles to read before I leap into this? The planted articles on this site are a little superficial.
Thanks,
FishDoc

[djlen]

Welcome to the forum.
I would not go any higher with the fish load than what you have at present. IMO, the tank as you describe it would be way overloaded. Discus, as I'm sure you know, need alot of room.
IME, they also need "clean" water and frequent water changes to be happy. If you are going to add more Discus I would not go with any more than a small school of, say neons and a couple of cats for clean up. And with that I would not add more than 2 Discus.
You have good lighting which if I understand it correctly, is in the 2 1/2 watt/gal. range. I'm not big on the high K tubes for plants although some people seem to like them. I like "daylight" tubes in the 5600K range for plants. You will get other opinions, I'm sure, on this forum.
I think you will be more successful if you inject CO2. Plants need a balance of N, K, P, and Traces. They benefit greatly when injecting CO2. Can you get by without it. Yes. With a 75 if you do decide to inject it would have to be pressurized in order to have the desired affect.
For more info on plant keeping check our archives by going to the search button and typing in any subject you have a question on.
Or: http://www.thekrib.com/
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm
http://www.sfbaaps.com/reference/barr_02_01.shtml
Hope this has helped some.
Len