Ca, KH, Mg, work hand in hand to keep all three levels balanced. NO2 and NO3 are always good to know. I would recommend ELOS brand or Salifert brand test kits.

Are those 5 the ones that I would need? I have one of the "fresh/salt water" kits in the blue box from Pisces.

I would suggest:

Nitrate, Ammonia, pH, and Phosphate (this one is iffy), refractometer for general keeping. I think I use my nitrite kit maybe once on average before it expires, and I only use it when I'm starting up a new system.
Magnesium, Calcium, and Alkalinity for SPS and LPS.
As bonus add ons, I like ORP, but it isn't a must-have in my mind.

As for brands, Elos is a nice kit to use, simple, and mostly straight forwards, Salifert is good too, but I find some kits hard to replace/find. I also use PinPoint monitors (Nitrate) and Hanna's Phosmeter (phosphates).

I don't know what the fresh/saltwater box kit is sorry...

Is there anyone in the SW Shawnessey area that could lend me a refractometer to test how close mine is?

I did this with mine, it was dead on. Then it changed somewhere along the line. Just toss it, get a refractometer.

I'm in Evergreen which is close to Shawnessy, so drop me a line sometime if you like. (But as Brad mentioned, you're better off to get your own because those swing-arms will randomly change on you so you can know your error one week and not the next.)

Thanks Delphinus. I guess I had better go get another job....... Looks like I have some purchases to do before I can get my tank the way I pictured it....... now how to tell the wife........eek

I guess I had better think of going RO/DI too.

Easy. Hey honey, look what I got!! Look really happy, she couldn't possibly get mad at something that obviously makes you so happy. Or, buy her some shoes to even things out. :)

Nope..... shoes can be used as weapons..... LOL