29 Gal Budget First Reef Tank Equipment Check

[ying yang]

Hi there,live aquaria has a good compatability chart ,when you click on ant fish ,underneath says quick stats and overview,if press quick stats then at bottom is the compatability chart,it's not 100% perfect as fish have personalities and example maybe a certain fish is peaceful but you end up buying a complete Jerk.but it's a good starting point.
It's good you have test kits on your list,most start with api buy then alot change to "better" test kits like salifert,nyos or hanna I've found out.but if want just ballpark whether say your nitrates are low-medium -or high then api may do but if wanting a finer number then maybe api not for you.and another example is api phospate either 0 or 0.25 and nothing innetween and allt peoples tanks run/ strive for lower than 0.25 so could never find out if use api etc.so depends what you wanting from that test.i could just say buy better but what I will say is research it some and you decide,but cheaper to buy 1 test kit first time then buy cheap and then buy another later,and if read the threads on r2r of people asking for help ,I've noticed if someone says testing with api,the general thing said is buy better tests then test again as more accurate than api as api maybe not giving true result.
So decision yours and goodluck .

 

[reeftankdude]

I'd go easy on that protein skimmer for awhile....I'm not a fan of running skimmers right out of the gate, especially on smaller systems. It can cause some real problems.

Hello Sir:

Great advice.

 

[Jekyl]

I'd advise against API tests for the long run. Salifert is what I use. If on a budget start with nitrate, phosphate and alkalinity tests to start. Add the others as you go.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Here's my updated item list. I have left out nets, dips, glues, scraper and foods for now.

Item Type	Name	Price
Tank	Aqueon 29G	$60
Filter	AC 110	$85
Heater	Hydor Theo 100w	$24
Heater Controller	InkBird	$35
Wavemaker	Jebao slw-10	$80
Bacteria	TurboStart	$24
Rock	Local rock	$50
Sand	Fiji pink	$30
Salinity Checker		$20
Light	Nicrew Reef 150	$185
Test Kit	API marine test kit	$25
Essentials	Total	$618

As for fish, are these ok together?

Stocking	QTD	Price
Frostbite Clown	2	$180
Royal gramma	1	$27
pink streak wrasse	1	$60
		$267

Please don't use API test kits. Salifert are affordable and more accurate than you need