Hi everyone,
I’ve been on the forums for quite some time but never participated. I’m a new reefer (Feb 2026) and have taken quite the odd plunge into the hobby.
Like many bad decisions, this all started with TikTok. PNW Customs has their 40oz micro reef and the thought of it was just too cool. I HAD to have one and I thought it would be a good way to intro to SW without making a huge investment.
Those tanks are quite pricey and after weeks of research I learned that the smaller the tank the bigger the swings. I was still determined to start small and jump off the deep end. I started with a 10L Fluval Spec and I cycled her and bought a bunch of value frags and threw them in. My corals settled in and started to grow a bit and I was happy.
I decided I wanted to try to get another tank up and running. I ended up getting a Fluval Spec 5 for free it came with almost everything I needed, I just needed rock. So I set it up and cycled it. Just as this new tank finished cycling, I got really tired of testing and maintaining multiple tanks. I decided I would consolidate these two into one bigger 10gallon tank, started that search and ended up with 20 IM Nuvo lol.
And here we are! She’s up and running been cycled and living her best life! It’s very sparse but I’m hoping to get a nem in the next 6 months and just let these babies grow and fill out the tank.
I’ve been super interested in 3D printing so you can see in the image I printed some supports for a glass lid, a powerhead anemone guard, and I also made custom canister filters for the Nuvo 20!
PS: pico stilll really interests me, I tried to order a dupe of the PNW custom 40oz and it ended up not coming after 2 months of waiting. Don’t be surprised if you see a pico adventure from me in the future!

I’ve been on the forums for quite some time but never participated. I’m a new reefer (Feb 2026) and have taken quite the odd plunge into the hobby.
Like many bad decisions, this all started with TikTok. PNW Customs has their 40oz micro reef and the thought of it was just too cool. I HAD to have one and I thought it would be a good way to intro to SW without making a huge investment.
Those tanks are quite pricey and after weeks of research I learned that the smaller the tank the bigger the swings. I was still determined to start small and jump off the deep end. I started with a 10L Fluval Spec and I cycled her and bought a bunch of value frags and threw them in. My corals settled in and started to grow a bit and I was happy.
I decided I wanted to try to get another tank up and running. I ended up getting a Fluval Spec 5 for free it came with almost everything I needed, I just needed rock. So I set it up and cycled it. Just as this new tank finished cycling, I got really tired of testing and maintaining multiple tanks. I decided I would consolidate these two into one bigger 10gallon tank, started that search and ended up with 20 IM Nuvo lol.
And here we are! She’s up and running been cycled and living her best life! It’s very sparse but I’m hoping to get a nem in the next 6 months and just let these babies grow and fill out the tank.
I’ve been super interested in 3D printing so you can see in the image I printed some supports for a glass lid, a powerhead anemone guard, and I also made custom canister filters for the Nuvo 20!
PS: pico stilll really interests me, I tried to order a dupe of the PNW custom 40oz and it ended up not coming after 2 months of waiting. Don’t be surprised if you see a pico adventure from me in the future!



