Salt water testing kit

[beansandmia]

Could someone please tell me which is the best kit to buy for testing all of the important stuff for a reef tank, I see some kits that have the basic four test and others have five, please list the brand name, thank you! I am going to be getting a 12 gal nano tank, is a skimmer needed for this as it will be a coral tank.

Also my b/f has a question he has a 46 bow front that has been going for about six years he has soft and hard corals in it along with a few fish. His current lighting system is two 96 watt power compacts 1 10k and one Actinic, is this enough light for the corals? or would a MH be way better and if so what kind of watts would it need.

 

[musho3210]

saltwater master test kit with
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
High range PH
Reef master test kit with
Calcium test
Carbonate hardness
Phosphates
Nitrate

Both are made by API

 

[beansandmia]

So I should buy both of those kits? And thanks for the reply!

 

[Reefscape]

If your keeping a reef tank, you ideally need all of them above. If its just a fish only system, you only really need to buy pH, ammonia, nitrITE and nitrATE...

NIko

 

[beansandmia]

This will be a reef tank

 

[Reefscape]

question answered then.....lol

Niko

 

[beansandmia]

Ok, great, do you happen to know about the lighting question by chance?

 

[musho3210]

what lighting question?

 

[beansandmia]

Could someone please tell me which is the best kit to buy for testing all of the important stuff for a reef tank, I see some kits that have the basic four test and others have five, please list the brand name, thank you! I am going to be getting a 12 gal nano tank, is a skimmer needed for this as it will be a coral tank.

Also my b/f has a question he has a 46 bow front that has been going for about six years he has soft and hard corals in it along with a few fish. His current lighting system is two 96 watt power compacts 1 10k and one Actinic, is this enough light for the corals? or would a MH be way better and if so what kind of watts would it need.

That one lol....also what chems do you all use in your reef tanks, what ones would be best for me to get.

 

[musho3210]

sorry i must have missed that, the 12 gallon nano doesnt NEED a skimmer, but i highly recommend it. An AquaC remora nano skimmer is the best nano skimmer on the market, stay away from the fission nano skimmer. With a skimmer it will be a bit easier to keep nitrate levels down.

96 watts is not enough for most corals, go with an MH that has 2 150 watts and then add either T5 actinic or PC actinics.

Dont really need to add any chemicals in your tank, the good quality salt mix should have it all in there.