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if I may comment
6 angels alone would be "close quarters" for a 55 gallon, full grown they like to have about 10 gallon each or 15 gallon for a mated pair - having to share 50 gallons with 7 other fish will make them mighty uncomforatble when they reach adult size...
if any of your angels decide they want to breed, you will have a big problem, as there won't be enough space to establish separate "territories", casuing your poor angels to fight with each other and with the other fish.
of course, if you're plannin on upgrading in six to nine months, perhaps adding another tank, then you could take out some angels (pairs hopefully!) and move them to new home(s)
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as far as your gravel - unless you're looking for a certain colored variety, check out your landscaping companies. for less than $10 you can get more than enough chat gravel, pea gravel, river rock or quartz sand to do a 55 [acronym:4801102c15="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:4801102c15]... sure the landscape products are a little dirtyer than the prewashed gravel sold for $10 a small bag at the pet store, but it cleans up easily and has a very pleasing natural look to it. I visited a local concrete and landscape business here and received ~ 90 lbs (2 5gal buckets) of "crushed" river rock gravel that looks awesome underwater ... the best part was the price - FREE ... they sold the stuff for $10 a ton!
also if you're considering a lot of plants, you might want to check out Schultz Aquatic Potting soil. I am a recent adopter of it and it works well... although it is more expensive that aquarium gravel, it is a lot less expensive than aquarium 'plant gravels' like fluorite or laterite. a 2.5" layer of this covered with 1/2" of pea gravel would give you great results.
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