[coldmantis]

lately I noticed that the salt community here has been very active. I have a boring fluval spec 2g that I wanted to convert to a very basic salt tank. I know it's small and I'll be starting the hard way but whatever. I'm pro at planted tanks but salt I know salt water has salt lol I'm going to try to ebay everything if possible. I recently got a really good deal on a 28g bow front, 2x coral life 24" T5HO double bulb fixtures with coral lights, eheim 2213 and a huge bucket of salt. I already cleaned the "new" equipment but i'm going to leave it empty and try a test tank to see how much work is involved before I decide to Upgrade if it comes to that to a this 28g. I already have 11 planted tanks running so doing weekly .5g-1g water changes on a 2g spec is doable for me.

This is what I have so far

fluval 2g spec
stock sponge foam(no carbon, or bio-rings, I can add these two if needed for a salt tank, or change it completely and add different media)
clip on 6500k CFL light(won't be using this on a salt tank)
50w heater that's preset to 78f
enough used sand maybe argonite? to fill the spec nicely

What I bought and waiting for it to be ship here

hydrometer with thermometer build in
link

What I need to buy and need advice

1st choice 9w LED bulb 2x white 1 x blue
2nd choice 15w LED bulb 3x white 2x blue
3rd choice 27w LED par38 6x white 3x blue

I hope since the spec is so small that any of the above lights should be good enough to grow the easy corals

Live rock

How many pounds should I get for a spec 1/2lb?

Livestock

No idea small stuff crab, snails, shrimp, maybe a small starfish?

Thanks for your inputs

Jim

 

[Car2n]

You would likely be far more successful if your "test tank" was the 28.

 

[TankCla]

Congratulations for getting into saltwater! I also started small and now I am at 75g, dreaming bigger.

1. I recommend a refractometer not a hydrometer. Salinity cal sol you can find anywhere for 5-7$.

2. The bulbs you have there won't do much. Maybe someone here can help you with a better choice for those money.

3. Thumb rule in SW is to have as many lb of LR as many gallons of water your tank can hold. In your case 2lb, maybe 4lb for more filtration.

4. In 2g aquarium I would keep some small snails, to clean the sand, and only a few soft small corals. Way too small to keep a crab and a shrimp. You can have Asterinas starfish, not the big ones, since they are very delicate creatures. The very change of temperature can kill them.

To be honest, you might be more happy with at least 10g or more.

 

[coldmantis]

Hmm I'm getting scared of salt tank now, yesterday when I cleaned out the used tank and filter I got, it had lots of worms in it, bristle worms I believe and today I'm working from home because I broke out in hives..... I though it was the pizza, wings, onion rings and fries my gf ordered from pizza pizza last night and maybe a cat fell in the oil or the oven lol but I'm thinking it's these damn worms. The same thing but less severe happens to me with blood worms if I don't wash my hands immediately after handling them.

 

[coldmantis]

Anyone of any opinions of the ebay LED lights, I was just at big als scarb and they had this CFL light coralife The person I spoke to said it will be overkill for my spec, I don't even think it will fit in my ai clip on light fixture. I would of bought it anyways but so expensive for a cfl bulb and it look really old and maybe used(they only had one left). I'm going to try to track down this 10w version coralife 10w if someone here tells me to run away and not buy any of those ebay LEDs.

 

[sig]

sorry, but it even does not make sense to comment on the light for 2g tank.

I am not even sure who has experience with these. My first SW was 1G with 3 harlequin shrimps and it last just 3 days, before I shut it and went with 29g

the smaller the tank - the less it is stable by chemically.
SW is not like FW were you can be OK with just mechanical filtration. In SW rocks and sand create closed biological loop and work as a filtration at the same time. The bigger the loop the more stable the chemistry in the tank

I run now 25G and comparing to 150G it requires much more attention and I have constant headache to keep it up to standards

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[coldmantis]

sorry, but it even does not make sense to comment on the light for 2g tank.

I am not even sure who has experience with these. My first SW was 1G with 3 harlequin shrimps and it last just 3 days, before I shut it and went with 29g

the smaller the tank - the less it is stable by chemically.
SW is not like FW were you can be OK with just mechanical filtration. In SW rocks and sand create closed biological loop and work as a filtration at the same time. The bigger the loop the more stable the chemistry in the tank

Hey Sig,

Thanks for commenting, I know about the difficulty with salt and small tanks but I want to try anyways. Hey who knows maybe I will shut down in 3 days and start a bigger one like you too.

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[sig]

Hey who knows maybe I will shut down in 3 days and start a bigger one like you too.
k 4

It is not "maybe ", the question is when There s never enough place for corals and size of the tank does not matter. I had thisi problem in 29G and in 150G

I keep fishes probably for 20 years in total. Since the moment I had my fisrt SW running, I do not see that I will ever have FW tank again

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[Bayinaung]

I still got my fresh water tank. I was going to set up a display with CO2 but no longer. My grow out tank is my fresh water, it's got lots of nano fish. You can achieve scale in a small FW that you can't in SW.

Besides it's so low maintenance. I don't do anything to it other than feed the fish and top up with tap water LOL.

 

[Bayinaung]

You can get a par 38 screw in light bulb for your nano. I would NOT recommend fish for that size tank, except maybe a tiny neon cleaner goby. I think it's best if you keep a cleaner or blood red shrimp along with some corals. With a nice full spectrum or actinic par38 you should get that SW flourescent colours going. GL with it.

 

[Flameangel]

It is not "maybe ", the question is when There s never enough place for corals and size of the tank does not matter. I had thisi problem in 29G and in 150G

I keep fishes probably for 20 years in total. Since the moment I had my fisrt SW running, I do not see that I will ever have FW tank again

That's true that once you started s.w.you'll never go back to freshwater.The reason being,coloration.

 

[des]

That's true that once you started s.w.you'll never go back to freshwater.The reason being,coloration.

It's not completely true! I started fresh, went to salt for a year, went back to fresh and now doing both.

Freshwater can be colourful as well.

Proof:

 

[Flameangel]

It's not completely true! I started fresh, went to salt for a year, went back to fresh and now doing both.

Freshwater can be colourful as well.

Proof:

I've had Oscars and Angel when I started my hobby but I find that marine fish colors are more vibrant than fresh water.....there's no question about it.

 

[des]

I've had Oscars and Angel when I started my hobby but I find that marine fish colors are more vibrant than fresh water.....there's no question about it.

More vibrant, I can't disagree with you there.

 

[coldmantis]

Got one if these bulbs from pet smart 10w 10k/actinic

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[altcharacter]

Nothing will grow with that bulb except possibly a bit of algae. I had a 13w cfl on my 8g tank and had a hard time keeping mushrooms and gsp.

 

[coldmantis]

Before

After

Is this a random stone or a very small piece of love rock?

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[aln]

If you want a piece of Live rock to help with the seeding of your tank, feel free to come over to my place and take a piece of mine.

I also got it for free when i just started my tank and i feel i should do the same. let me know

btw...yah...gotta say as a freshy myself before...im loving the dark side alot better

 

[coldmantis]

If you want a piece of Live rock to help with the seeding of your tank, feel free to come over to my place and take a piece of mine.

I also got it for free when i just started my tank and i feel i should do the same. let me know

btw...yah...gotta say as a freshy myself before...im loving the dark side alot better

Hey thanks I will take you up on that offer, I noticed that your starting planted tank let me know if you want anything

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[altcharacter]

Looks good! I love the small tanks, just make sure to keep up on the water levels.

Yep, if you need any sand or rock to start seeding give me a shout. My door is always open. I also have a few frags if needed