When you say charcoal, you mean activated charcoal right? Normal charcoal is no good whatsoever.

Regarding lighting you're probably best off with 1-2 cfls, you don't want incandescents(excessive heat, little usable light).

Misting the terrarium, well, I'd do it as seems necessary for the plants, you can only judge it by experimenting.

Otherwise sounds good.

RP1

Yes, you can use the fluo light hood that came with your tank. Try to find a bulb with a colour temp. of 6500-6700K. This is the best for plant growth, and as it is the colour of natural sunlight at noon, it looks very nice (no turning plants funny colours). One light won't put out that much light though, so I'd supplement with a bit of sunlight. Morning sun is best, as it won't heat your tank up too much (more indirect), and you should have a vent in the top of your tank anyways to allow heat to escape.

How often you need to mist depends entirely on how humid it is where you live, how open the tank is, and any number of other environmental factors. I'd suggest you buy a little hygrometer to measure the humidity. 70-90% is good for terrarium plants in general. Then mist accordingly. I find I need to mist almost every day.

Don't mean to sound "dumb", but I don't know what zone is. I want to start a terrarium. I bought succulents today as a way to start. I don't know where to get the charcoal, sphagnum moss or the sand that I'll eventually need for the other terrariums I plan to start and give as gifts. Can someone give me some tips?

First tip ......... start a new thread.