What you need to get started-discussion thread

I do not wish to throw a wet blanket on a pretty well written article. However, it is not really comprehensive. There is a wonderful site that helped me a lot when I first got started and you might want to take a look at how they dealt with this topic in terms of comprehensiveness and ease of understanding.

Click on "Your First Aquarium" here http://fins.actwin.com/aquariafaq.html

It's just meant to be a starter on equipment and why you need it, more of a primer than anything else. That is a great site and I'm glad you linked it.