Newbie question on testing equipment.

[lohman446]

It is my intent to set up a 29G nano tank in the future for a small handful of fish. As I have never done anything with aquariums at all I am totally lost. I do not have a LFS that I like the feel of within an hour (or more) of me, so boards like this become vital.
I have no intent of doing coral in this tank, this is my "starter" tank with possible plans for a bigger tank in the future for more / different fish. This one is going to be mostly clowns and perhaps a dwarf angel.
What testing equipment should I purchase? Understand I have none. I don't want to buy the cheapest thing possible and find myself throwing it away next month to buy what I should have bought at first.
Thanks for all your help. More questions to follow . I hope to get everything in mind and post a "plan" for those who know what they are doing to tell me why I am wrong.

 

[92protruck]

salifert brand tests are popular on this board. they are not the cheapest nor the most expensive but seem to be pretty accurate and easy to read. P.S. only 2 clowns together and no dwarf angel in a 29 gal tank. Also, 98.7% of all people that say they will not do corals drop some mushrooms in the tank within 3 months (IMO). Better to buy lighting once.

 

[colourmop]

yeah salifert is pertty accurate, also you may want to pick a bottle of those test strips, just for nitrate/nitrite test after your cycle done. if you use the default light come with the nano tank such as 50W dual PC or something like that(salt water nano, not those regular small tank light) you could get mushrooms, even some zoas to light up your tank
also when you are ready for fish, it is a good idea to buy them from LFS because you get to pick the healthy one and skip the skipping process(which may kill/wound your fish)
tell us more about your furture tank once you set the plan

 

[lohman446]

Originally Posted by 92ProTruck
salifert brand tests are popular on this board. they are not the cheapest nor the most expensive but seem to be pretty accurate and easy to read. P.S. only 2 clowns together and no dwarf angel in a 29 gal tank. Also, 98.7% of all people that say they will not do corals drop some mushrooms in the tank within 3 months (IMO). Better to buy lighting once.
In the normal "oh look neat" that seems to guide a lot of new people to this (I assume) I had gotten the impression that I could get a dwarf angel into a 29 if I was careful about what I chose. Not to argue but is this just totally wrong on my understanding? I'm glad to hear on mushrooms though, as that gives me an avenue to look into for additions. Thanks