[quote="reef_raf"]
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Originally Posted by Jaws
All the electronic stuff is cool and great to impress your reefing buddies, but it really isn't "required equipment"!
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Accurate testing is so important. Especailly when starting up. I agree you don't NEED the electronic equipment. You can use the standard test kits that you can pick up for about $10-15 for each. But it at times can be hard to match exact the colors against the test charts, making it easy to misjudged & be inaccurate.
Bringing water samples to your LFS is good but how many times to do actually want to do that before you get your own test kits and save yourself time.
There is must dispute about plastic swing arm to measure salinity. As they are a good starter @ $12 (cheap plastic) That even when calibrated with a refractometers gets build up of salt & are not very accurate in long term. Refractometer is most needed when you treat sick fish (ich-very common)for a treatment called Hyposalinity (lower salinity 1.09) Which needs to be exact.
When I first started in the hobby I got a the test kits to test everything (PH, No2, No3. Ca, NH3 for about $10 ea. Then measure salinity with a plastic arm.
You can always upgrade later with a refractometer for salinity & Pinpoint meter for PH.
