[Symbiosis]

From what iv'e heard, Jebo's are a good entry level skimmer simply because they aren't overpriced for what you get. I thought about getting one, but knew that I would have a high bio load later and didn't want to spend more money buying a different skimmer later. I think for the price its worth giving a chance. I'd love to see some pics if and when you get it up and running as well as your impressions on its performance.

As for sand, I would just get fine aragonite. 2 to 2 1/2 fifteen pund bags of caribsea aragamax sand should give you about an inch in a 55 gallon. Probably won't even take that much. Let's see what the calculator says... according to this, about 30lbs of sand. You can get aragamax from Petsmart for $18 for 15lbs. Might try your other LFS for 30lb bags which should be a little less expensive. The best thing about aragamax is its buffering ability that you won't get with silicate based sands.