I got one too 
Hi folks...my first posting here.
I got a 55gal too and am fishless cycling it with freeze dried shrimp. Seemed like a good idea, and seems to be working out pretty well...ammonia is holding at 1.0 after 1.5 wks. Really hated the spikes and panic when I cycled my 10gal a while back. The 10gal is really my first successful habitat. I was young and ignorant during my first attempt...an often repeated refrain from what I gather from reading posts.
Hubby bought me the tank, and we got it a bit early because he got flustered at all the choices and brought me to the store to pick it out, so it is already a little ways into the cycling. Good thing he did too, because he thought we could put a 75gal on the console in the front hall! Although I would have loved the 75gal, we got the 55gal with a proper stand and lots of new equipment
Now I just have to figure out what to put in it...I was thinking of loaches, but since I chose what looks like a marble substrate, that may not work. I threw the bags out so I forgot what it is exactly, but, since it was the only substrate I saw that wasn't coated in some sort of polymer, I got it. I like to keep plastics to a bare minimum in my house. Of course, then I turned around and got a castle/cave thing and a dragon...my conscience doesn't always speak up when it ought to, LOL.
Also, am thinking of getting something small and colorful that will shoal, with maybe an oddball few fish that won't eat all the smaller fish.
