What do I need

[polarice18]

I am new to saltwater tanks. I have all the basic equipment, tank, stand, protien skimmer, sufficient filter, heater. I have a 55 gallon tank and I need to know how much of what chemicals and products to use to get the water going. Things such as crushed coral and different chems. I have no idea how much I need to put in or where to get them, so if someone could help me that would be awesome

 

[barry cuda]

I'd like to add a 2nd book suggestion. The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta (published by TFH) is a great book that is more approachable than many and provides a lot of very useful info. I also have the Conscientious Marine Aquarist and while I agree that it's a great source of information and especially some information (such as the chapter on cyanide capture) that I haven't seen covered well anywhere else, it isn't as easy to read and tends to be more abstract imho than the Paletta book.
Just my $.02

 

[808smokey]

A lot of people will go against the crushed coral (CC). I have about 1" of CC and about 1.5-2" of play sand from Home depot. I had 4" of Play sand and it look retarded in my tank. It's only 20" tall. You'll need a bag of "Instant Ocean" (salt). I used tap water but a lot of people will lean towards Reverse Osmosis water $$$. You can use a piece of shrimp from the grocery store to start your cycle, that's the cheapest way. Some people will suggest Live rock and Live sand but that's $$$. You could try a damsel or two but you run the risk of killing them do to poor water quality. You'll need a good test kit to watch the levels of Ammonia, PH, Nitrite and Nitrates. You'll also need a Specific Gravity meter (SG) it measures the amount of salt in the water. Other than that I would get a good book and read through this forum and any other sites you can find although I think this one is the best so far.
Just my .02¢

 

[birdy]

I would agree to most of the above suggetions, especially the two book suggestions.
Do not use crushed coral, it is of no benefit to the tank and will cause nitrate problems down the road, find some good aragonite sand (if you are lucky you can find some bagged as playsand at your local home depot). The other thing you want in your tank is LR, this is probably the most expensive thing you will put in your tank, but it is worth every penny. If you are strapped for money, you can use some baserock and put LR on top to seed it, eventually it will all become live.
As was stated before all you really need to get started is salt, you don't need to add chemicals, and you will need test kits, start out right and buy salifert test kits they are much clearer to read and more accurate than many of the other tests out there, you will want tests for : pH, alk, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, and possibly calcium.
I also highly recommend buying Reverse Osmosis water (you will probably want to buy your own unit eventually). Tap water has all kinds of bad things in it that can cause problems in your tank.