Cheap water quality test kits?

[Claw Atticas]

I just bought my first non-test-strip test kit, because they didn't have cheap test strips for calcium levels (Nitrite/Nitrate/pH/Hardness (freshwater)/alkalinity strips are $12 to $15, compared to $70 for the chemical test kit for the same tests), and I realized all that came with it was a 0.5oz bottle of "ethanol absolute", and a 0.85oz bottle of sodium hydroxide (And some of their own calcium additive).
I was wondering if I could find out what chemicals are used in other tests (Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, alkalinity, phosphates, etc), and buy them from some chemical supply website for a cheaper price, and find the instructions for each test kit online

[Ziggy953]

Look online for your test kits. They are usually a lot cheaper then buying them from an LFS. $70 is a high for any test kit. Look online.

I don't think I would mess around with trying to create your own test kits. The dilution of each chemical could be completely different...

[catmel]

I bought my saltwater master test kit ( ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) for about $30 at my LFS. Depends on what you need - they also have a reef master kit with phospate, calcium etc. Check out Drs Foster & Smith or Big als if your LFS isnt decently priced. They usually have good sales and decent shipping. You might also want to keep an eye on petsmart.com, they're only have basic stuff, but they do free shipping over $50 or $70 ( if you need more stuff as well) every once in a while.

A good plus to all these kits is that they come with intructions for each individual kit about how much water to use, how many drops and scales for measuring color.

good luck!