what i would get, if you havent gotten it already would be; a ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test kits before you cycle. I would put in the sand next. There are good reasons why you might want a deep sandbed generally atleast 4 inches. I personally have 3. If this is too much for you, you can get some playground sand called Southdown at homedepot, some people have it and some people dont have it. Its generally 5 dollars for 50 lbs from what i heard. You will probably need atleast 160 lbs to get 4 inches. You can get a 50/50 mix and later on your sandbed will become live. This is up to you, you dont need it that much,if you dont want to. Generally nitrates should be low as possible, zero is preferred but sometimes thats hard to achive for some people.
Next, i would get a media bag or pantyhose or some type of fine meshtype bag that you can float in your tank(see picture). I put my 3 frozen raw shrimp from the grocery store and put it into the bag and then i let it float next to a powerhead while the canopy is holding down the top of the bag. The reasony why you might want the bag is because if you just dump shrimp in there, there will be a BIG mess to clean up. Ive experinced this with my friends tank. It took an hour for me to get rid of all the shirmp chunks that break apart in your hands trying to get it out.
It took me 1 and half weeks to cycle. Wait until, the ammonia and nitrite shoot up and drop to zero and the nitrates gradually lower. I waited 3 weeks until the nitrates are low enough to put in some hardy fish. Like a chromis. I wouldnt get a damsel other then a chromis because other damsels can be very agressive and it can attack your new fish plus they are very hard to catch, often people have to take the live rocks out to get them out(ive had this problem). It can take longer not every fish tank is the same, some people it can take up to a month.
Well, as for why, i dont know how to really explain it, i just tell my relatives and friends, basically building enough bacteria to 'break-in' the water to simulate the fishes natural environment. I dont know if this is true or not.
I dont know how much info you know about starting out but i had sometime and i just recently started a 55 also. There is a book i can recommend to you that can explain most of your answers you might need; TheConscientious Marine Aquarist, it is a very good book and is not very expensive, it has a lot of nice photos and information about starting out.
Welcome to the board. I hope this helps
