... which leads me to my next question; what to tesk & k

[Larry Grenier]

What do most of you suggest a rookie should be testing and what kit do you recommend?

[fredyk]

I would suggest you get a baseline for your aquarium.

what is the daily nitrate reading. Nitrate may change daily. phosphate may be less changeable, but good to know how it fluctuates during the course of a dosing schedule.

Get PH and GH to determine CO2. Ph may change daily; my feeling is GH is less changeable. But need tests to get a baseline.

Mark

[Aaron]

Get PH and GH to determine CO2. Ph may change daily; my feeling is GH is less changeable. But need tests to get a baseline.

Mark

I think you meant to say pH and KH. Those are the two parameters that determine CO2 levels. Search "chucks planted aquarium" and you'll come accross a great site with a fert and CO2 calculator that comes in real handy. Test nitrates and phoshpates and get a feel for how quickly they get depleted and dose accordingly. I like Seachems phosphate kit and my nitrate kit is a Lamotte. There are other decent nitrate kits as Lamotte is very expensive. I believe most people like Red Sea's.

After a while you'll get in a groove and dose mostly by feel and say "testing...what's that?"