The only thing I added to the water when I started was Stresscoat. I added pure ammonia the first day to get it up to 4.0. on the 4th day i started to get readings on the nitrite test (my tank has been running at 82 degrees and I've added a few flakes of food the first 3 days to get the bacteria going.
I'm only going to have one Betta and a snail. I had originally wanted one Betta and 2 Platys, but everyone on the message boards was telling me this was too much.