I did many fresh water tanks before taking the salt water plunge. Everything from community tanks to single CIchlid tanks Oscars green terrors neon blue jack Dempsey wolf cichlids arrowanas peacock bass until I saw a good quality flower horn cichlid and never looked back. I raised mostly red...
To answer your question on the AI sols 2 units will do. You can do the white and one super blue but your k spectrum will look different on each side. Better to go with all white or super blues. On the diy someone else will have to chime in on that answer.
Hi John starting slow is great. You can start with just about any zoa or pimple mushroom. They are great starter corals. Add a couple of corals a week and go from there.