Lost my 27g tank due to bottom seam leaking from having to redo floors and I thought I had it drained enough to cause no harm, wrong! I kept getting salt creep on the back bottom of the tank. Just assumed it was coming from the HOB overflow. Around 11pm one night I went to go to bed and stepped in water. The awe $^%@ feeling came over me. I drained as much water in to buckets as I could and placed all rock and fish in the buckets with pumps and heaters till I could deal with it in the morning. I picked up a small cube to put the stuff in and dug my old sump from 20 years ago out of the barn to attach it too. I want a larger tank but with divorce, kids and covid that wasn't happening anytime soon.
27g cube
Temporary setup
Eventually I bought a 40g breeder to place all my rock and corals in. Started with Petco's basic setup as this is suppose to be permanent temporary setup and eventually a frag tank for the "Big" tank. So I went with a simple tried and true tank/stand for low budget setups.
40g breeder
I picked up some goodies for the tank, a Trigger Systems 26 sump and 5g top off reservoir through Premium Aquatics while on sale. To go with the new sump I got an Apex ATK. Then since work picked back up and it was harder and harder to test and dose additives for the corals I picked up an Apex EL, Trident and DOS with DDR from Bulk Reef Supply. What a life changer for people who don't have as much time to spend testing and dosing.
So this all lead to what to do with the Apex. I purchased a matching stand from Petco for a 29g tank. Made a back for it and laid out my system. Ordered miscellaneous plug covers, plug adapters, etc to mount it all up.
Layout of Apex
Full tank shot of tank presently
Sump layout
For my lighting I had a Al Prime 16hd on my old cube so I stayed with that and added another. Well after months of using them I felt my corals weren't getting enough light especially after the downgrade by Al to prevent lens burning using the AB+ setting. I bought a 36" Aquatic Life Hybrid with two coral plus and two blue plus bulbs as I prefer a whiter/blue look. I'll post below how I set that up on my tank.
This is my present day setup but have been working on more upgrades. Haha
27g cube
Temporary setup
Eventually I bought a 40g breeder to place all my rock and corals in. Started with Petco's basic setup as this is suppose to be permanent temporary setup and eventually a frag tank for the "Big" tank. So I went with a simple tried and true tank/stand for low budget setups.
40g breeder
I picked up some goodies for the tank, a Trigger Systems 26 sump and 5g top off reservoir through Premium Aquatics while on sale. To go with the new sump I got an Apex ATK. Then since work picked back up and it was harder and harder to test and dose additives for the corals I picked up an Apex EL, Trident and DOS with DDR from Bulk Reef Supply. What a life changer for people who don't have as much time to spend testing and dosing.
So this all lead to what to do with the Apex. I purchased a matching stand from Petco for a 29g tank. Made a back for it and laid out my system. Ordered miscellaneous plug covers, plug adapters, etc to mount it all up.
Layout of Apex
Full tank shot of tank presently
Sump layout
For my lighting I had a Al Prime 16hd on my old cube so I stayed with that and added another. Well after months of using them I felt my corals weren't getting enough light especially after the downgrade by Al to prevent lens burning using the AB+ setting. I bought a 36" Aquatic Life Hybrid with two coral plus and two blue plus bulbs as I prefer a whiter/blue look. I'll post below how I set that up on my tank.
This is my present day setup but have been working on more upgrades. Haha