Figured I would start a build thread since I didn’t do one with my last tank a couple years ago. I had a Red Sea reefer 250 a couple years ago and didn’t have much success I was overwhelmed by the maintenance on a tank that large and not having much experience if any at all I contribute to my failures. Fast forward to now I have been in my new house for about a year and a half and thought it was time to start up a new tank. Searched fb market and found a deal on an IM Nuvo 20 AIO with ai prime (not hd), reactor, uv and some other misc things and picked it up. I wanted this tank to be more thought out and planned compared to my reefer 250. I want this tank to be SPS dominant mixed reef I was not successful at all with SPS before but I am determined this time. I got the tank filled about 7 months ago. I realized quickly that I would need to upgrade my lighting for SPS So I started searching for lighting deals in my area and found someone selling a full 40 gallon breeder tank with 2 ai prime 16hd, powerhead, hob filter, canister filter, tank and stand for a great price so I picked those up.
It may not look SPS dominant at the moment, but I will be slowly transitioning some of the corals out of my tank to make some room for SPS Frags. I was lucky enough to be one of the daily points giveaway winners from BRS And was able to pick up this Apex 3 for only $230 or so I have never had a controller before but have always wanted one so this was super exciting to set up and get dialed in. I am already looking around locally for people who are selling trident, dos, atk etc.
I currently do not dose anything and just do water changes every week. I am looking into running the Chris Meckley method where the main focus is on PH stability with kalk and will be replicating his method with control from the apex and dos. Also wanted to give a big shout out to Niagara Fire Corals on YouTube for the full setup guide on the Apex controller it was a huge help setting up the main functions and some light programming to make it easier to customize my apex for exactly my needs. Thank you all for checking out my build thread I am going to keep it updated as it comes along. Happy Reefing!