Marineland makes good stuff.

The "kits" provide just enough to make you realize how much more you need, and the Top Fish sort of skimps in a few areas.  

Even with the Marineland kit, I'd suggest at least doubling the fitlering that comes with it, an external canister is best, in addition to the hang on back biowheel filter that is included.  

I'd personally set up my own "kit" by grabbing the best of the various components, but still stick with two types of filters, that way one can fail and you don't lose all of your biological filtering.

Be sure to get a bottle of the "New Tank Boost" of beneficial bacteria to make it less of a death trap, still let it run for a week full of water, but without fish, to let the biome build up and get your filters primed, then have a few cheap fish for a month.   The water will be cloudy on and off, but that will level out.    Once everything lives for 3 months, add the fish you really want (the ones that cost over $5).  

You'll probably also want to double the lighting, LEDs give great light for the power used, the blue and white combos really bring out colors, much better than the aquatic flourescent tubes.


The actual "starter kit" is the cheap part.  The filtering systems ($$), aquarium stand ($), extra lighting (like filters, more is better!), chemicals, testing kits, several sets of filter media for both included biowheel and canister filter, cleaning/water change setup, and a bunch of other little things add up quick.  

Think about $350 in addition to what the "kit" includes by the time you are all done.   Plus fish cost, just so you know now.


Must Read - top 10 mistake new to fish make

Stocking a tank - Tips and species

Example list for a 10 gallon tank, some applies to a 55


Use This Calculator to decide on your desired fish, tank capacity, and filtering needed  (It will also let you know if you are "clashing" fish, getting aggressive ones, livebearing ones, etc).   That calculator gives you FAR more knowledge than any pet store employee could help you with.   Pet store people will steer you directly wrong more often than not.


After taking a peek at those short articles, spend a few hours on YouTube for Aquarium instructions and suggestions, so you don't make all the mistakes again yourself.   That time is never "wasted".

If you get more than "A snail", you will have a tank full of snails in 6 months.   Blue and UV LED lighting are common due to the number of artificially dyed "glow fish" sold now.

Did not know that.  When I was messing with aquariums, the flourescent fish were the same Glass Fish, but strategically injected with fluorescent dye, but it was only in a few streaks on them and faded after a while.   I noticed the new ones were fully colored, but I  just thought they improved their process.  

Thanks for that bit of info!

That's awesome!  You sort of get all the pretty color fish of a saltwater tank without the massive expense and hassle of saltwater!

Depending on stocking level, about 10% weekly, plus 30% monthly, or however much it takes to get the gravel clean.  Filter Changes (cleaning or replacement of mechanical mesh filter and new activated carbon to replace the clogged stuff) happen Monthly, generally one filter system at a time, staggered by 2 weeks.   NEVER do a 100% water change, or even 50% unless something is horribly wrong, it'll do more damage then benefit!

As the tank is stabilized past 6 months (water is always clear, fishies always live happily), 10%  per week (no deep gravel suction cleaning, just the surface of substrate and replace -- 5 minutes total).   That calculator link above will tell you the percentage change and how often.   These get extended a bit with a good filtration system (2 units rated for 55 gallon tanks, in your case, one hang on back, one canister), but even 1000% filter capacity does NOT mean you can ignore water changes!

The reason for changing the water is simple:   Dilution is the Solution to Pollution

Here's the cycle:
The bacterial "slime"/beneficial bacteria in the tank convert fish waste into ammonia and nitrates and phosphates
The bacteria and decomposition of uneaten fish food also turns into ammonia
Another type of bacteria, which takes longer to form (hence "cycling" a new tank), converts all of that ammonia into nitrates
The Activated carbon in your filter will trap heavy metals, odor causing molecules, and some other stuff, but NOT Nitrate or Ammonia or Phosphates.

In a filter, you can get Zeolite or other (rather expensive) absorbent for ammonia, but no such thing exists for nitrates (and phosphates).   You may need to use some of this in the beginning if you have ammonia spikes, but don't use it all the time, since the bacteria that create a complete biological filter need a bit of that ammonia as food.

The Nitrates and Phosphates build up, so you must change water to remove those.   This is much more difficult in a saltwater tank, since maintaining pH and salinity also factor in, so freshwater is "easier".   Not to mention saltwater fish are much more sensitive to pH, nitrates, and phosphates...

Live plants help in the "Nitrogen Cycle" of aquariums, but, like filters, do not alleviate the requirement of water changes.    

Reason water changes are fast:   Get a 5 gallon bucket and a large/long siphon.  Suck out until bucket is full.  Dump bucket.   Fill bucket with fresh water.   Add Dechlorinator, and top off tank.       No fancy guessing about "how much 10% is" and so on.

For a smaller tank, a 3 gallon bucket works for same purpose, taking a larger percentage, but larger percentages are needed for smaller tanks, since pollutants increase much more rapidly as the volume is far lower.

Spend a few minutes and read this: Art and Science of Aquarium Management (PDF)   It's from Seachem, who makes excellent stuff for both freshwater and saltwater, so the article covers both.

It explains the chemistry of what is going on inside your tank and what the different parts of the nitrogen cycle are, complete with the actual chemical formulas for the geeky, though you can read it without knowing a bunch of chemistry.    

I suggest Aqueon or Seachem water conditioners/bacteria starting load/charcoal/etc.   The Tetra brand is sort of the wal-mart of fish supplies (Good fish food, though, I used their "Tetra Crisps", which sink slowly to feed both top, middle, and bottom feeding fish).

Tetra may have improved in the past few years, somebody feel free to correct me on that.

Nitrogen Cycle in easy to understand format

One last thing..

Do not use "Water Clarifier" chemicals.   The clouds are various types, and are a good visual symptom of something out of balance.  Whiteish is usually bacterial bloom, common with new tanks.

It's better to fix what's out of balance, usually a water change, filter fix, too much junk in gravel, etc.  Otherwise you'll go broke dumping the "Clear Water" chemical in your tank.

All the clarifiers do is make particles too small to be trapped by your filter system clump together so they will be trapped by your filter system.   If you do this with a new tank, the bacteria won't grab onto the gravel/rocks/decorations where it is needed to do it's job eliminating ammonia and other pollutants harmful to your fish.    

The one thing absolutely required to maintain a healthy aquarium cannot be purchased - Patience.

Things typically change over days and weeks, not minutes to  hours.

Just feed a small pinch of food once per day to feed half a dozen fish.

I'd suggest getting two products:    Seachem Prime (dechlorinator, ammonia neutralizer, other stuff) and Seachem Stability (Good bacteria, boost to new tank, it is NOT a chemical band aid).

For first 10 days of tank:  to get it back into some balance and started right, do the following:
10% water change DAILY.  It'll be cloudy for the first month to varying degrees.  This 10% doesn't have to come from the gravel, unless there's food laying there.
Add 1mL of Prime per 10 gallons to replacement water.
Add replacement water into tank after Prime has been in tap water for 20 seconds.
Add 5mL of Stability per 10 gallons of water to aquarium itself.

--NOTE:  The common ammonia test kits will read insane levels of Ammonia if you are using Seachem Prime.  This is normal.  Prime simply binds ammonia up so it is not biologically active (doesn't hurt fish).   If the pH of the water goes above 12, that binding chemical 'breaks'.   So if your ammonia test kit requires you to sample water and put it in a separate container, then shake/move stick around before comparing to a test strip, it's going to read wrong when using Prime.     Basically, you don't need to worry about ammonia if you are using Prime and Stability according to label directions, that's on their site that I linked above.

People have reported getting a New Aquarium populated on day 1 with water following the above directions.   Seachem products cost a few dollars more, but are worth every penny.   Avoid Tetra brand stuff (other than food), and for the most part, avoid any other "Additives" to the aquarium until you know what you need.  Tetra stuff also tends to be "use by teaspoon" while the higher end products are "use by drops or syringe".  So the same size bottle will last far longer for a good product over the cheaper store brand and Tetra brand dechlorinators.  Also to note is if your water has Chloramine as drinking water treatment, the cheap dechlorinators release ammonia when you are trying to get rid of chloramine with them.   Prime avoids or fixes all those issues.

The $9 bottle of prime will last you over a year, the $10 bottle of stability will get the bacteria in your tank started with the correct bacteria and settled sooner.  

Change out 10% of the water, remove all food, vacation blocks aren't a good food source, fish will eat literally until their stomachs explode, so you must control their feeding so they grow, but don't get sick due to too much food.    

ANY food not eaten within 2 minutes is too much food.   Feed once per day.   If you enjoy watching your fish eat, feed twice per day, but smaller pinches each time.   Just so no food is sitting on the gravel after 5 minutes and you are doing the right amounts.

Once your biological filter gets established, the cloudiness will fade, and literally vanish overnight at some point (3 weeks-ish), leaving you with crystal clear water.

Read This - The First 30 Days  It covers everything you'll see, so there aren't surprises.    Add in the other links above and you should have a pretty good library to find questions from.

Also See This (pretty good overall site)

Note:  If you see a page suggesting using water clarifiers, air bubblers, adjusting the pH (with a freshwater tank), adjusting the temperature, adding Zeolite as a "fix", look for a better source of information!

Read This to correct "knowledge" imparted by pet store employees

With LEDs, the ones with Red LEDs sprinkled in with the white and blue, but the bright white LEDs will keep plants alive just fine, as long as you have enough lighting.  I'd put 2 55 gallon rated LED lights on a 55 gallon, because I like to see, and have plants.   Plus, just like filters, the "good for x gallon tank rating" is usually overstated by 50%.

How's it going?

You should be either at or through the Nitrite spike about now, with low ammonia levels.

Just add Seachem Prime 5mL/day until Nitrites have been turned into Nitrates, which are then cycled out through water changes.

If Nitrites get above 3ppm, water changes should be every other day, as that is when Prime "wears off" typically.    Once it's cycled (1 or 2 more weeks if it's left alone and heated), water changes will go to 10-15% every 2 weeks, or more ~30% once per month.  Then it's more for looking at than fussing with.  Fussing/rearranging/etc  should be kept to a minimum.

At this point, watch your pH in addition to Nitrites, a lot of acids get formed in this stage which can cause your pH to crash.   Don't try to adjust your pH, just make sure your KH/Alkalinity is OK with fresh water changes, you should get enough KH from tap water (KH is what keeps the pH stable, fish like stable, even if it isn't optimum).   In other words, it's better to have a stable pH 6.8 than an aquarium that bounces from 6.8 to 7.8 each week, this is attained by the KH/Alakalinity/"Usable Hardness" of your tap water, (the part water softeners remove).   KH also gets depleted in your tank from Nitric acid and other organics that the KH buffers so there aren't huge pH swings.    This is why you get fish that will live in the tap water of the pH of your area, and only worry about keeping KH > 50 ppm.    

To have more exotics, you'll end up buying deionized water, then adding back in a few pounds of minerals to make it hard water again.  Some go so far as to buy a reverse osmosis unit for their aquarium water, which makes every water change rather spendy, since fish can't live without anti-oxidants, minerals, vitamins, and electrolytes that come with tap water, those all need to be added to the RO water to make it "good".

Are you using 2 separate filters?

One thing you can do, if you still have media from your old filter, is add it to the tank, so the bacteria get a "jump start".  

With one filter, you are killing about 1/2 of your biological filtration every time you replace it.   I used the cheap tetra whisper "bags", and would rinse them in used aquarium water (at water changes) for months, until they were almost falling apart, before replacing (A Box of 4 bags would last almost a year).   Then I'd only replace one at a time, giving at least 2 weeks for the bacteria to get onto the new filter before replacing (not just rinsing) the other one (even if it was overflowing full).  Never rinse in untreated tap  water, the chlorine will kill all of the bacteria you've been patiently culturing!

The cloudiness will hang around for the first two months or so, that might have been set back, without knowing the nitrite and ammonia levels, can't give a guess.

As to The Nitrogen Cycle, you see it in stages at first, then once the aquarium is "Cycled" (continual Nitrogen cycle functioning), these things happen concurrently:

Waste is converted into Ammonia/Ammonium (NH3/NH4), Amonnium is formed with Prime or pH > 7.5, while ammonia is the form with lower pH. (also plant food)
Bacteria Trades the Hydrogen for an oxygen, giving you NitrItes (NO2), which are toxic, but about 10 times less toxic than ammonia, but still harmful above 3ppm.
Another type of bacteria converts the Nitrite into NitrAte (NO3), which is relatively harmless to fish (below 20ppm or so) and a live plant fertilizer.  Water changes keep this below 20ppm

All 3 of those produce acids which will lower pH, which is the reason to keep your eye on the KH in your tank during this part, essentially daily.  More frequent water changes needed to keep KH up and NitrItes down during this time if overfeeding to avoid a "pH crash", where it will literally drop a point overnight (10 times more acidic), fish don't like that.

Ammonia Sources - 1 day to 2 week  (Aquarium gets very hazy)
Nitrite bacteria - 2-4 weeks  (Aquarium is milky, but ok)
Nitrate bacteria formed 3-6 weeks (Haziness decreases, then vanishes, unless something else is wrong, worry about it then....)

The waste of each bacteria stage is food for the next.  To figure out where you are at, get test strip 25 pack or test kit (200+ tests for each) for 2x as much.  With Prime, you can only use a SeaChem Ammonia Alert Badge, which measures free NH3 (Ammonia) and not the non-bioavailable NH4 Ammonium, which is what Prime makes ammonia into, no matter the pH.  

When the water goes from clear to cloudy at first, you are in your ammonia stage, testing will show little to no Nitrites or Nitrates.
After 2-4 weeks, the bacteria form that convert ammonia into Nitrites, this is when you need to start watching your KH, to avoid a pH crash, if your tap water is low in KH, if you have over 120KH in tap water, you are fine.
After another 1-3 weeks, you'll see the Nitrites dropping and the NitrAtes going up.   This also creates acids which "use up" your KH/Alkalinity, and Oxygen, so ensure good circulation.
When ammonia and Nitrites zero or one color from zero on tests, and Nitrates are rising, your tank is "Cycled/Nitrogen Cycle Functioning" aka "Running".  Then you only have water changes to worry about.

Do Not overfeed.  Fish grow amazingly fast, and even if dropping in a little bit each day, those hungry will get food.    Though with your tank, they still may be fighting for heirarchy, so I'd add some SeaChem StressGuard if there are wounds, it works differently than all the other "Stress" products by actually preventing infection and only latching onto the wounds to help heal, rather than sliming the fish with Aloe Vera (essentially what the common "Stress Chemicals" are).

You should have an established tank by now.

The JD's are probably all you'll be able to keep alive in it, though.

You should have test strips by now (and at least 2 filters)

What are your readings for:
Nitrates
Nitrites ( should be zero)
Ammonia ( should be zero)
KH ( Should be > 100)
GH (> KH)
pH
?

Are your KH/GH in degrees or PPM?   1 degree of hardness (alk or general) is 17.9 ppm.

Don't chase your pH, but you'll want to get it to 6.8 to 7.5 using a little seachem Malawi Buffer and maybe a touch of Cichlid salt for the minerals that Cichlid's need, but they are pretty durable, you don't need to do that unless you want optimum color and minimal disease.