First salt water build. Fluval Spec 2 gallon!

studd muffin

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 16, 2009
3,620
0
36
'MERICA
I am going to do my first salt water tank! Going to use the fluval spec 2 gallon tank I recently purchased. My plans for it is to be a nano reef tank. I got the idea after searching online for nano reefs. There was an amazing tank that I saw and fell in love with. It inspired me to turn my fluval spec into a nano reef. My uncle who has a reef tank is going to help me with the two gallons to start off the tank. If that doesn't happen then I am going to ask the owner of my favorite lfs store if I can have some of their water. The owner is pretty cool with me and I am a frequent customer so I am sure he wouldn't mind helping. I would appreciate some feed back :)

What I will be doing:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Lighting: I am going to replace the LED lights that came with the fluval spec. Going to get more suitable LEDs.

-Heater: Marineland mini heater. Was thinking about the marineland mini because it would fit perfectly in the pump area of the sump. Any recommendations on heaters?

-Filtration: The filtration built in the tank ;)

-Stock: Not sure yet but would appreciate some recommendations.

-Substrate: Live reef sand. Dont know what brand yet.

-Salt: Any suggestions on what brand I should use?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a picture of the tank that I was inspired by! Here is the link for the thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1868901

IMGP8233.JPG

dec2010picofts.jpg
 

Tom LoFaro

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2010
264
0
0
11704 NY
Inb4 you getting flamed. The tank you see there is probably maintained by a expert in saltwater. Bigger is better when it comes to your first saltwater. In smaller volumes of water, conditions fluctuate VERY quickly. A reef tank that small probably needs all it's water changed daily, which takes away the convenience of having a small tank. Trust me, this is going to be a headache and a waste of time and money trying. I really suggest a bigger tank. No offense, I really do love tiny reefs, but it's totally unpractical, especially for your first tank.
 

studd muffin

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 16, 2009
3,620
0
36
'MERICA
Tom LoFaro;5053624; said:
Inb4 you getting flamed. The tank you see there is probably maintained by a expert in saltwater. Bigger is better when it comes to your first saltwater. In smaller volumes of water, conditions fluctuate VERY quickly. A reef tank that small probably needs all it's water changed daily, which takes away the convenience of having a small tank. Trust me, this is going to be a headache and a waste of time and money trying. I really suggest a bigger tank. No offense, I really do love tiny reefs, but it's totally unpractical, especially for your first tank.
Thanks for the info! I cant really go big at the moment because I am limited in space. Just wanted to start out with something small and work my way up big. I will keep in mind what you said though. :)
 

Greg31

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Sep 15, 2009
1,739
0
51
Maryland
if you want to start small go with 10-20g. Not 2g.
 

Spiritofthesoul

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 3, 2010
4,692
17
38
31
Singapore
Why is everybody shooting him down? Its his buz on the size of the tank, not ours. Some SW aquarist also start out nano.
The reason he posted here is to ask for help from the experts here, knowing how difficult it is to maintain a small tank.

So stop commenting on how he is not suppose to keep a small SW tank just because he is a :newbie:.
What does that help? Please give constructive feedbacks which would help improve the overall health of the tank.

To OP, I'm sure your tank would be lovely with the help of your uncle who is a seasonal reefkeeper.
I think as long as you are dedicated to do small daily water changes (RO only! for reefs), your tank would flourish.
I'm no SW expert so I'll leave the experts to give more in-depth help with the tank.

As for stock, I won't really recommand fishes in such a small tank, perharps some inverterbrates like snails/shrimps?
 

studd muffin

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 16, 2009
3,620
0
36
'MERICA
Yea I was thinking shrimp as my stock. As for the RO water, Can I use purified drinking water? Where I live I can get 5 gallon of drinking water for a dollar. If not that then I dont mind spending extra money for a RO water filter.
 

FLESHY

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jan 7, 2006
5,542
20
92
Central Wisconsin
First off, I would like to say that the fluval spec is AWESOME!

I cant believe that you dont see this thing around more often.

A friend of mine watched my 125g reef while I was out in LA for 17 days this past winter, and to reward him I bought him one of these, and some LR I picked up at tongs in LA.

I gave him substrate from my tank...and it has looked great since then.

He got this tank late January...immediately added a velvet damsel (the thing is still smaller than my pinky nail) and then a couple weeks later started adding corals.

He has two hermit crabs (blue leg) and two astrea snails...

He messed up the lights that came with it, so he is using something else...it is an even weaker LED than the one he had before, but it is working, the corals are doing okay...we have yet to see how they do long term, and I am thinking about buying him another LED light just to make sure he has more power.

He is a complete noob, has never kept fish, or read a book on them. Everything is doing fine, he has lost nothing, and done about two or three water changes since he got it.

I put his heater in the same place as you are planning on doing it.

That LED looks like it will do the trick, but expect there to be a lot of spill into the room, I think that will be too powerful, you are going to have to hang it at least a foot off the water.

Go slow...if you are going to add a fish, feed sparingly and make sure that it is absolutely TINY.

GL, cant wait to see it, these tanks are so neat.
 

studd muffin

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 16, 2009
3,620
0
36
'MERICA
FLESHY;5054600; said:
First off, I would like to say that the fluval spec is AWESOME!

I cant believe that you dont see this thing around more often.

A friend of mine watched my 125g reef while I was out in LA for 17 days this past winter, and to reward him I bought him one of these, and some LR I picked up at tongs in LA.

I gave him substrate from my tank...and it has looked great since then.

He got this tank late January...immediately added a velvet damsel (the thing is still smaller than my pinky nail) and then a couple weeks later started adding corals.

He has two hermit crabs (blue leg) and two astrea snails...

He messed up the lights that came with it, so he is using something else...it is an even weaker LED than the one he had before, but it is working, the corals are doing okay...we have yet to see how they do long term, and I am thinking about buying him another LED light just to make sure he has more power.

He is a complete noob, has never kept fish, or read a book on them. Everything is doing fine, he has lost nothing, and done about two or three water changes since he got it.

I put his heater in the same place as you are planning on doing it.

That LED looks like it will do the trick, but expect there to be a lot of spill into the room, I think that will be too powerful, you are going to have to hang it at least a foot off the water.

Go slow...if you are going to add a fish, feed sparingly and make sure that it is absolutely TINY.

GL, cant wait to see it, these tanks are so neat.
What heater is he using? :)
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store