My Planted Tank Needs Red Sea Fish Pharm Freshwater Master Deluxe Lab ?

[Jag1980]

I'm not running a CO2 system, but I am stocking lots of plants in my 29 gallon tank. Do I need the full range of tests found in "Red Sea Fish Pharm Freshwater Master Deluxe Lab" or is there a test kit smaller and cheaper that will do just fine for my tank?
My plants don't need to be show quality, but I do want to keep them alive and healthy.. The kit I mentioned is expensive and was hoping that there was a cheaper kit more suitable for my needs on what I'm trying to achieve?

 

[WyldFya]

Depends on what your trying to achieve. If you are just looking for a basic test kit, the API will work, but this doesn't include much you will need. IF you want to be able to monitor your NPK and Iron, both the red sea and some other kits are needed. Saliferts are better tests, but cost a lot more than the red sea kits.

 

[Jag1980]

ok thanks, I will be buying the red sea kit, but not until next month when I got a little more cash to spend of fish stuff.
When dosing my tank with nutrients, which 2 test should I get to make sure I don't get into a danger zone?
I figure I could get 1 or 2 bottle of single tests now to hold me over until I get the full test kit.

My substrate is only a couple weeks old and my PH before plants has never moved from about 7.0 to 7.2
I have 2 Bio-Wheels.

 

[WyldFya]

If you are injecting co2, then kh and ph are important, as well as nitrogen (primarily nitrate, but all three are good), phosphorus, and potassium test kits. The NPK are all important to have, but nitrogen and phosphorus are the more important of the three.