Most Economic/Accurate Monitoring

[Galiant50]

I'm looking for the most economic way to monitor PH/ALK, Temp, nitrate and phosphates. Anyone have advice?

 

[burningmime]

You have a couple options depending on how high tech you want to go...

Absolute cheapest option with most manual work:
Temperature: Get 2 or 3 cheap thermometers and average them.
Ph, Alk, Nitrate, Phosphate: Test kits. I always used Red Sea with my previous tank, which is fairly cheap and accurate, and come in a pack. There are pH strips for freshwater, I wouldn't use 'em on marine but YMMV.

Slightly more expensive:
Temperature: Same as above, or you can grab a lab-grade thermometer for like $50 if you really want to.
Ph: pH probe pen type. They're like $40 now.
Alk: Hanna checker
Nitrate: Nyos test kit
Phosphate: Hanna checker