It all depends on what you want your tank to be and how it filtered. I have a 45 ga, fish only, no lr, and no ls, and it works great. My only substrate is a little cc, and "dead rocks".
i would have a 4 inch sand bed(or up to 6), but it does not all have to be live sand, you can use dry sand, and i would not use cc, had it before,and now i don't and i am much happier