THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION AND HAS WORKED WELL FOR ME
Try to have a nice deep sand bed -DSB (about 4" deep)
-fine aragonite sand works best for this
-do some searches and read previous posts on this message board about sand beds.
weight of live rock varies so an exact number of pounds is hard to say. Try to fill alot of space with the rock (visually about 2/3 of your tank space) as this, along with the sand, will be the heart of your filtration system. Good live rock will also seed the sand bed and make it "live sand".
Power filter is not necessary and will only complicate things. Just use the skimmer.
Lighting depends on your budget. I have achieved beautiful results, the tank of my dreams, with only 4-65watt PCs. Its a matter of choice, so I will not give lighting advise.
A reef tank needs time to mature and strike a balance. Not sure what the norm is but Mine has been set up for about a year and a half and I believe it may be close to being balanced. Critterrs begin to flourish, fish stay alive, corals look happy and maintainance can become less of a chore.
Its a good idea to plan what you want to have but its best to do tons and tons of recearch before buying anything. Read alot of books. What works for my tank may not be successful for everyone, but I believe in keeping it simple. I tend to stick with the basic animals to start out with, until you get the feel of keeping a reef tank.
my suggestions:
-for fish... start with hardy fish (damsels)
-for corals...start with hardy corals (polyps, shrooms,leathers)
-for inverts...choose usefull critters such as brittle stars, cucumbers and most importantly, a good clean up crew (be as diverse as you can possibly be with this! I have in my 75 gal. ... Astrea snails, Bumble bee snails, Nassarius snails, Margarita snails, Turbo snails, Red-leg hermits, Blue-leg hermits, Scarlet hermits, Left-handed hermits, etc. etc.)
expect to have some set-backs.
expect to deal with algae.
expect to become addicted!
Have fun and good luck!