Testing?

[blj1234]

Alright, I need the rundown of all the liquids and testing kits. I will have live rock and sand in my tank. WHat do I need to test.
And I have a 55 gallon tank I am setting up. What should I put in it? I'm intrested in a snowflake eel and a puffer, maby a green spotted. Lionfish are out because the stinging fins. I would like a huma-huma trigger, bit might be too crouded for it. Any suggestions?

 

[grouperhead]

A snowflake eel would be a very good addition to a 55g tank. Most toby's will be good in there, I'm not very familiar with green spotted puffers though. A dwarf lion would also go in there, the stinging fins arent really something to loose sleep about. As for test kits, I use the ones with the litmus type paper. They seem to work pretty good. Bo

 

[fshhub]

well, there is a can of worms, opened by the sharks, lol, j/k
i personally do not like the strips or tabs, have found that they are tooeasily corrupted, snd often not as accurate as most liquids, this exprience is based on years of dealing with water chemistry in general(careere usage), not just aquariums
anyhow, i prefer liquid, and really like the tetra tec kits, they are easy to use and very easy to read, salifert also supposedly makes good kits, but most do not like aquarium pharm kits(i am one who does like them, but do agree there are many easier kits on the market)
to answer the question:
ph, alkalinity(or kh), calcium, ammonia nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate, there are a couple of others but depending on your system, you may not ned to monitor them as closely
and make sure the kits you buy are for saltwater use(some say fw and sw, but one or 2 of the kits may not read well for salt, so be sure each one is specifically for salt)
HTH