The 1000 watt MH isn't too much light unless you have it too close. Try to set it at 30-36" and wait for them to get a little bigger before you bring it down. As far as number of plants, I've been experimenting, and came to the conclusion that many smaller ones(SOG) is going to be a better option that fewer bigger ones. Unless you plant to run a bunch of side-lighting, you lose alot of area with bigger plants, due to the lights not being able to penetrate effectively. You might want to look into training techniques like FIM, because I've seen them used with excellent results.