Hi there,
Test kits are very important to have! You need to know the chemistry of your h20 for your fishes sake? I would say your most important kits would be...Ammonia, Nitrites , Nitrates & PH...Then there are many other things to test for...(hardness etc) I say these are most important because water can become toxic due to these levels...and mess up biological filter if you ever overloaded it by mistake, or say if one little fishy got lost, or died and you didn't now the ammonia was spiking because you had a carcass somewhere...which would then raise Traite & Trite levels? Important for the cycling of the h2o.
IMHO the easiest less expensive kits I used are the Mardel Kits, of course there is also Doc Wellfish . Mardel also have test "Strips" to dip in the water and match up the colors (easy) but I also like to have the actual liquid form of them with test tubes to have accurate back up readings. NOW, you could get each kit separate...say for example...a Ammonia test kit (doc wellfish) ran me about $12.00 -$16.00. Basically the same for each. The test strips are a bit pricier and there are only 25 in one kit and a larger kit for approx $40.00 or so dollars with 100 strips (nitarte & Nitrate on the strip) Of course there are COSTLY kits with all included....anywhere for a generic brand which offers both fresh and salt water from $30.00 some dollars up to hundreds (someone above said they can run more than that?) but I guess I tossed it up on the price assuming they should all work the same. I guess I could also say...make sure the test kit isn't too inexpensaive and only gives you a reading with a color chart BUT that it also has a Number on it as PPM, so you can see how high the levels are? Hey just LOL and say to yourself....I am now a SCIENTIST with all my test tubes!!! GOOD LUCK ! This board will guide you tot he right things! MarSea
ps...just my opinion, could be wrong...but hey I went for it! LOL
I learned alot tonight regarding QT and test kits. Thanks to everyone who replied!