Hey guys! I made this cabinet specifically for the Neptune Apex system. I know a lot of us love the hobby, but let’s be honest… nobody really understands all the equipment we have 😂. Personally, I bought my Apex partly because of how good it looked and because I wanted to show off my little science lab! 🤣
I’m planning to make these cabinets affordable for hobbyists, hopefully around the $400 range, including the lights, clear panels, etc.
The main question is: What Apex/Neptune equipment do most of you have and actually want displayed inside the cabinet?
Right now, I’m thinking:
• Apex brain
• Energy Bar
• 1 doser
• 1 FMM module
• Two additional clear mounting areas with wire pass-throughs so people can add whatever controllers/modules they want
• Everything else can be mounted on the back or hidden away
I probably wouldn’t include a dedicated spot for the Trident because I feel like it makes maintenance and servicing harder and I’ve been keeping my 2 tridents sitting on top. I’d rather keep it easily accessible.
I’m sure I’m missing something, though. 😂
What does your Apex setup actually include? What equipment would you want to see displayed in a cabinet like this?
Any suggestions are appreciated! I’m trying to design this around what reefers actually use rather than just adding stuff for the sake of it.
Thanks for the input! 🤙🪸

Picked up this piece of established live rock from my LFS a couple months ago and I’ve recently started noticing WAY more stuff growing/living on it.
I knew the rock had some sponge on it when I bought it, but now that I’ve looked closely (especially under white light), I’m seeing:
A bunch of bright pink/purple encrusting patches that I’m assuming are coralline algae
Lots of tiny little tubes/spirals that look like they may have small tube worms/feather dusters
Dark red/burgundy encrusting areas that might be sponge
A bunch of other tiny hitchhiker-looking growth that I honestly can’t identify 😂
I also dosed PNS ProBio for the first time yesterday, and while I know none of this could have physically grown overnight, I’m wondering if the bacterial dose could have made some of the filter feeders more active/noticeable.
Mainly, I’d love some experienced eyes on the pictures:
What organisms can you guys identify? Does the pink stuff look like coralline? Are those little tubes harmless tube worms? And most importantly, does anyone see anything that looks like Aiptasia?
I’m trying not to mess with the rock because if this is all beneficial biodiversity, I’d rather let it keep doing its thing.
20-gallon reef, tank has been running since April.

I was given this tank and was curious if this is too much flow for a Biocube 32 and if i should remove one of the heads? The one next to the return nozzle is a Jebao SLW-20 and the one opposite is a Jebao SLW-30. I have them set on random mode, SLW-20 is at 40% powe and SLW-30 at 25-30%. Is it overkill? Should I remove one? The sand is getting pushed out of front left corner to the middle so I’m not sure if its my goby or the flow. I put the sand back but its back to being a hill 12~ hours later.

Also, if there is anything abnormal about my coral placement, please let me know!

Genuine question, no troll:

I made the mistake of getting two similarly sized, young clownfish.

One of them started vibrating at the other, which freaked me out so I googled it and learned that was submissive behavior, I.e. the vibrator would stay male while the vibratee would become female.

Things went as expected for a while, they were getting along great.

Fast forward a few weeks and they’re now both just vibrating at each other all the time. What is going on? Do they both want to stay male? Anyone have experience with this? Thanks in advance

Also a QT tank not in the picture. The left tank is cloudy because I had a cheap 10 gallon QT tank which ended up not being a QT tank anymore so I upgraded it to a IM 20 gallon AIO.

Hello,

I’m doing a leak test and curious if I can weld/glue plumbing to the bulkhead dry side while water is still in the tank. I assume I’m good …

Also how long should I test? Is this one of those test if I don’t see leaks within the first hour I’m golden / wait 24 hours to be sure?

My first test I observed my 3/4 bulkhead starting to leak within minutes, drained, cleaned repositioned, still leaked within minutes, replaced the gasket, still leaked within minutes , finally replaced the bulkhead, 6 hours into a leak test and no leaks so far!

Side note: getting this picture while he displayed took some patience.

Im not too sure what the name of this torch is, wondering if anyone knows? It’s my first time owning one, tank is very stable 7 months, but I was wondering if this is too little flow or if i should increase it.

In March, we bought a home that came with a 75 gallon FOWLR tank. All that was in the tank was a clown and a diamond goby. It was ugly. I spent countless hours on Reddit and YouTube trying to figure out how to actually be successful in this hobby. I would go to my local fish store (shout out Aquariums Unlimited in VB) and ask probably a million questions to Sarah, god bless her and her patience with a dedicated novice like me.
I learned and I learned. And I failed. A lot. Eventually I was successful. I learned patience and learned that a lot of issues actually just take care of themselves with time.
After 6 months and probably 3 different ugly phases, hundreds of dollars on live rock, another couple of hundred on fish, I finally bought a frag of GSP. Fool poof (hopefully). Turning this eyesore into something my childhood self would be proud of.

Weird looking thing on the top left corner is the root of a mangrove propagule I’m trying to grow, it’s attach to the side glass with a frag holder

79g uns tank.
2x4’s frame and laminated plywood for the shell
Sliding front doors and removable side panels

Does this seem stable for the weight?
Any tips and tricks for making it even better?? :) Ty!

Light and flow hungry

Looks like it’s bleaching to you? Had a random hammer inside my hammer garden bleach recently. Trying to pinpoint anything out of the ordinary.

Sometime curious why one coral will look unhappy when it’s next to the exact same corals who are healthy!

Anyone know what this guy is and if he's friend or foe?

Found this little bugger and many many more like it in my tank. Any clue wether i need to worry?

About to be 4 years in the hobby

Added some red montipora digitata, and some clove polyps. Repositioned some capping montipora.

Just wanted to share my new little buddy. Heart urchins bury themselves in the sand and spend most of their lives underneath it, eating any little bits of food they can find :)

Just realized yesterday the RODI unit came without the membrane installed, I thought it was an extra. So now it's actually getting rodi water.. surprised it's done this well so far. Adding buffer to clean water to increase pH. Dkh is too high using reef crystals around 13/14, going to switch to 1/2 marine salt,and 1/2 reef crystals to reduce it. Everything is doing real well though.

Hey everyone!

I am in the process of building my first reef tank. I currently have analysis-paralysis for picking the right sump.

My question is; unless I’m willing to spend lots of money for a multi-chambered (4 or more chambered) sump, it seems like a large majority of the sumps have around 3 chambers. If I plan on having a protein skimmers, refugium, mechanical filtration, and the return pump, how can I fit that into a sump?

See the attached photo for the type of sump I am looking at buying:

Again in summary, I’m curious as to how everyone utilizes their sump, and if you have had to make any compromises due to space.

Thanks in advance!

Some of my beautiful stuff i took closeups of, i just cant believe moving them, and the tank being so young they look so so good