which substrate soils to use,plants and fish

hi, my name is martin im just starting out with a tropical tank which is 48"x18x12 i was wondering if u could give me some advice on which substrate soil,plants and fish to use please

p.s if u could tell me what lighting to use would be of a great help thanks very much

What kind of fish you want to have discuses or other tropical fish. In case you decide to go with the discuses there some plants that you better avoid as they need certain temperatures.
If you want an high-tech aquarium -with CO2 you can have every folk that you desire and the temp is fixed to 26. The discus on the other hand love warm temp of 30 so many plants won't grow

If you want to start off simple and use the single tube fluorescent light that that comes with most aquariums, try a substrate of fine aquarium gravel with a supplement of pure Laterite. Float some hornwort on top, and use low light plants like java fern, anubias and crypys (please excuse the bad spelling). Sinking driftwood tends to soften the water and will provide an anchor for the java ferns. Those plants are readily available on aquabid.com and even ebay.