Hey buddy, I assume you understand that aquarium is not a cheap hobby. The glass tank is the cheapest component of the whole setup. If you thought it was going to be cheap, then ignore everything below and get guppy and change the water using a siphon vacume 1x per week, and that's it.
Otherwise:
1. put tank on a good stand
2. buy a couple bags of Eco complete gravel and lay it in (this will be good for plants later)
3. buy an airstone/airpump/airhose and oxygenate the water - run airline from basement (thru tiny hole in floor) so you don't have to listen to airpump noise, and get a heater. Marineland Stealth-Pro heaters are great; totally submersible, and have red/green LED to let you know it's working. Get floating thermometer and adjust heater so water is 78 degrees.
4. I saw the new Fluval G3 canister filter demo'd at local store - very cool and VERY user friendly. If you can't afford it, go with Rena Filstar XP2 - very quiet and user friendly; I've had one running in my bedroom for 2 years and can't hear it. Put bio-media in filter. Let tank run for a week.
5. Get a test kit and start learning about your water (Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, GH, pH). Learn to replace evaporation with Reverse Osmosis or distilled water, or your water will get harder and harder as the months go by. Start a routine of replacing 10 gallons of the water in your tank every week (dumping the old water down the drain.) This is called a "water change". Later you may want to do larger water changes, like 15 or 20 gallons.
6. Now you're ready for fish. Get hardy "lake" fish like zebra danios which are very hard to kill. Get 'em from a local mom-n-pop fish store, not Petco. The fish will cycle the tank for you (finish the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle) Leave 'em in for a few weeks, then take 'em back to store (that's why mom-n-pop is important, they take 'em back and give you credit for your next fish. Petco won't do that.) Throw in a few plastic plants.
7. Since by now you probably understand what sort of water you have coming out of the tap, get a few pretty but inexpensive fish. If you live in an area with very soft water out of the tap, river fish are OK. Otherwise get lake fish. Ask mom-n-pop to show you the different lake/river species. I live in LA, and our tap water is liquid rock; I don't know how many tetras I killed until I understood the problem: river fish need soft water; lake fish will live in just about anything. With LA water, I should have kept African ciclids. Now I know. These days I switched to using Reverse Osmosis water with trace minerals and keep amazon species. The hardness of your water determines what species you can keep happy.
8. Get a nice light for your tank so you can see your pretty fish. LED lights are getting cheaper every month, and they have too many advantages to ignore - cool running, low power consumption, pretty "dapple effect" of lights and shadows shimmering in your tank. Check out Current USA's "Powerbrites". If you're going to have live plants in your tank, spend the $ now to get a light that's bright enough and has proper spectrum. Again, I went with "aquabar" LED growlights, expensive but too many advantages to ignore. Put grow light on a timer.
9. By now, you should be an expert in keeping your pretty but inexpensive fish. Avoid the temptation to keep 100 fish in a 55 gallon tank, and running to the store to add yet another species every week (I've been there). When you're ready for some challenge, instead of getting some exotic fish, first try growing plants; it's more difficult than you think. This is where your Eco Complete gravel comes in very very handy. You'll know you're OK if your plants live thru the first few months and show signs of reproducing themselves. If you don't inject CO2, use Flourish Excel that has bio-availabel carbon dioxide right in the solution. Seachem's flourish Excel, Trace, and Potassium should be all you need. I started by injecting CO2, so never went with Excel. Wtih a good vigorous "planted" tank, you'll never really need to clean the gravel because the fish poop gets used up as plant fertilizer.
10. By now, you're ready for some exotic expensive fish to put in your underwater garden.
That's my 2 cents
Just reply by PM if you have any questions
