Reddit mentions of Red Sea Reef Foundation Test Kit - Calcium, Alkalinity & Magnesium

let me preface this with, i highly recommend you drill your tanks and turn the 10g into a sump. sumps are by far the best filtration for saltwater tanks. i feel like the cost of pumps, plumbing, and the glass/acrylic would come to about $100+ but it really its the best in terms of saltwater filtration. id look up a few guides on like drilling tanks and making sumps and see if its for you.

If not, you could use your aquaclear with sponges and filter floss (no need for biomedia, maybe carbon now and then though) as mechanical filtration.

the heater should be fine but you need a really reliable one. a lot of people like eheim jager or cobalt neotherm as they have good reliability as a temp swing or spike, while would be ok for a lot of freshwater fish and plants, can kill corals easily. yours should be fine if you want to stick with it though.

You are not going to need or want that canister. they have no place in saltwater as they are just nitrate factories.

So heres a few basic things youre gonna want:

red sea test kit - $40. the api freshwater actually works for salt if you have it, but red sea is more accurate.

the red sea foundation test kit is good if you want corals and stuff to test your kh, Ca, and Mg. - ~$50 - some people also use salifert test kits. up to you which one you wanna do.

hanna phosphate checker $50- down the line youre gonna want one if you do corals. a lot of people use it. i dont even have mine yet but good to keep an eye on as phosphates are pretty important to monitor in your reef.

rodi system - ~$140. this is super important . you could buy your saltwater premixed from your lfs but that will add up after a while. with this you hook it up under a sink to make rodi water (similar to distilled) and use that to mix your saltwater.

salt $75 for 175gallons of saltwater worth - red sea is seen as the best for corals but you can use the instant ocean sea salt as well. red sea just has better nutrients for coral growth. `


powerheads - honestly like $50 for two koralia 425's to $500+ for high end. id suggest this set of two jebao sw4's. they are wavemakers and you can control the flow and waves. they alternate on and off to make a current which fish and corals really like. this is like $100.
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On to rock and sand, these are your biological filtration and where all the bacteria live. for sand you want probably 1.5-2" of sand unless you plant to do a deep sand bed (look it up for more info) and you want 1-1.5lbs of rock per gallon. all live rock and sand is more expensive than going like mostly dry rock and dry sand and adding a tiny bit of live. doing this will mean that you have to wait for the bacteria on the live rock to spread throughout all the other rock and sand. in larger systems its a LOT cheaper this way but as my tank is small i went all live from the start.

live sand ~$40-50 - you can probably find it cheaper local. amazon marks sand up high cuz of shipping cost. 30lbs will probably give you a good depth. you could also do dry sand for slightly cheapr

live rock- this depends on where you live. around me the stores sell it for $6-7 a lb but if i go on craigslist i can find it for like $3 a lb. id look around tbh and see what you can find.

dry rock on the other hand can be found pretty cheap for like $2-3 a lb. like it said, i think its a bit slower but def cheaper to do dry vs live.

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this next part is dependent on whether or not you plan to do corals, which ill assume you are (cuz who doesnt want corals?!?!)

a light: there are SO much variety for reef lights. you can do t5, led, metal halide, and so much more. the light also depends on what type of corals you want to do and their light requirements.

id probably suggest something like a mars aqua if you want to go cheap. you power the whites and blues on a separate times so you can have em on two timers. id look around for advice on lighting schedules and such like this. the light is $100 and you are gonna want to find a way to hang it btw.

if you want to do high end lights, look into something like the aid prime hd or even a kessil a160.

always check ebay/craigslist cuz you can find some good deals for these on there!

if you dont do corals, honestly whatever light to light the tank up works.

if i missed anything, someone else chime in or ill add it later if i remember

I count 21 corals and 2 nems, in a nano tank that's what, less than 2 months old? You're starting way too fast. You should really be adding 1-2 new corals per week while checking parameters so you can adjust calc/alk dosage based on consumption. Hopefully you have some kind of dosing setup or calcium reactor already, but if not you really need to be looking into that right now. And hopefully you're testing parameters daily so you can get an idea of what the daily/weekly consumption is.

Anyway, I wish you luck. It's a tough hobby even when you take it slow, and going hard like this really just complicates things. I'd stop adding frags for a few months and really focus on getting your parameters rock solid. Despite what everyone is telling you in this thread, it's probably possible to keep everything alive. Just stay laser-focused on stability, and if you don't have one get a Red Sea Reef Foundation Pro test kit like yesterday.

products i love:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007Z4ITWU/ref=sxr_rr_xsim1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

https://www.amazon.com/Hanna-Instruments-HI-755-Colorimeter/dp/B005FH2O6G/ref=pd_sim_328_91?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8MKR3X0JC3JK0MJA969X

https://www.amazon.com/Red-Sea-Reef-Foundation-Test/dp/B004FUJ5NE/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1482730008&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=red+sea+test+kit

Nice setup Cameron. Those API test kits are sort of garbage for accuracy (if that is what they are). Red Sea makes a much more accurate one: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Sea-Reef-Foundation-Test/dp/B004FUJ5NE