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2 gallon hex pico tank


Jaded Grunt

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Jaded Grunt

So I was at the thrift store yesterday and found this 2 gallon hex tank for $3. I then went to the pet store and picked up a small filter and heater for it. I've done a bit of research and found that the filter (definitely) and the heater (possibly) is going to be completely worthless for this setup. Good thing petsmart has a good return policy.

 

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The top cover was very brittle and warped. It snapped when I tried to bend it back. I can always make another one if necessary. Is it necessary? Anyway, I'm thinking about doing

to the hood. Has anyone tried that? Do they make bulbs small enough for this tank? I'm thinking that I shouldn't use a bulb over 8 watts. The heater is 10w rated for a 2.65g tank. It's not adjustable so I'll have to test that to see what temp it maintains. If it maintains a good temp then I'll probably go ahead and rock it. My biggest worry at this point is that the lighting fixture is going to cause huge issues with water temps. I should be able to rig something up to get the fixture a few inches above the tank pretty easily. Would that be enough to eliminate that issue or would I need to keep a fan constantly blowing on it? I'm going to take this whole thing one step at a time. By the time I decide to put something that's alive in the tank I'll know enough to keep it alive and happy. Since it could take weeks before I can start adding things I want to get started cycling it and getting the technical issues worked out.
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LarryMoeCurly

A few things:

 

Get a digital or glass (or both) thermometer, do not trust that stick-on kind.

 

Salt creep will probably destroy that hood eventually, if you really want to stick with that hood (I did not wathc the video), I would try to hang it some how.

 

If this is your first saltwater tank, I would start with something bigger than 3 gallons.

 

You will want a heater that is adjustable.

 

My main peice of advice would be to do more research. :D

 

Edit: after reading the dscription to the video, I would suggest trashing the hood if you decide to use this tank. It seems like it's more trouble than it's worth.

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Jaded Grunt

Yeah it's my first saltwater aquarium. I've been researching them for a few months, though. The cost is the biggest prohibiting factor. Eventually I'll be the first person to respond to that "my husband cheated on me so I'm giving away his gigantic aquarium" post on craigslist but until I get lucky this seems like the easiest way to get into the hobby without a) shelling out a bunch of money in the beginning and B) not having a bunch of unexpected costs popping up. $40-$50 here and there isn't a big deal to me. $400-$500 is.

 

I'm not sure how it would be more trouble than it's worth. Take out the reflector, spray it with gloss white spray paint, reattach reflector, screw in 50/50 bulb. Sealing the whole thing does seem like overkill to me. I think that if I raise the hood a couple of inches off of the tank and make a new cover then I won't have any problems.

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LarryMoeCurly

Sorry to say it, but if you have a very tight budget you are entering the wrong hobby IMO.

 

It is not a good idea to buy cheap products in the beginning. Also, there will always be unexpected costs.

 

I guess the smaller the tank, the lower the cost. However, the smaller the tank, the more difficult to properly maintain.

 

Edit: Yes, I used a walmart CP bulb over my 5 gallon and it was fine. I did have a lot of algae growth (but thats probably because I neglected the tank for 3+ years). You need to hang that sort of hood, because salt creep will destroy it if you don't (or even if you do, in some cases).

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Jaded Grunt

I'm not on a tight budget. I just don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a realistic saltwater tank. I could. I choose not to. Mostly because I've heard the horror stories about how fast a tank can crash. I'm looking at this as more of a learning experience. If I can keep $100 worth of coral alive for a few months in a 2 gallon tank then I won't be so hesitant to get a good sized tank and spend the money on getting it set up. If $100 worth of coral die then I'll be a lot more willing to look at what I did wrong and replace them in the hopes that I'll do better next time. I've heard both sides of the "the bigger the tank the better your chances" argument. I think that the nano/pico reef guys make some very good points. I'm willing to go that route first before I go big.

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LarryMoeCurly

Sounds like a good plan to me. That's basically what I did. I started with a 5g "experiment", now I have a 20 gallon long.

 

BTW, the smaller the tank, the more easily a crash can occur. ;)

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Clarinet_Reefer

As LMC said, invest in your equipment and you will go farther than trying to do a budget build. A good size to begin with is an all glass aquarium, the 5.5 gal ones. Many different pico threads use this same type of tank and are some very magnificent reefs. However, if you wish to continue with this tank and if you want to keep that hood, go ahead and try the Coralife Mini Powercompact. This 50/50 bulb will fit in that hood (I am trying the same tank out myself) and does give a 'decent' amount of light. No sps' here. Zoa's and 'shrooms are probably all that those bulbs will sustain. I also had to lose that acrylic cover. A custom glass one would be awesome. As for filtration I actually threw on an AC 20 and it fits perfectly on one of the sides of the tank. And as far as a heater for this, I haven't tried one out since my temps for it sit pretty high, but I'm gonna have to say get a thermometer and see where the tanks sits at and how much of a swing you get with/without lights.

Anyways, hope you enjoy this little tank and good luck!

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Jaded Grunt

A 10g filter almost fits. It works but it's not totally flush. I don't think that the plastic is thick enough for me to cut it down, either. Maybe I could modify it to make it a mini refugium or maybe even a micro wet/dry filter? If I set the light up to sit a few inches above the tank and leave the top off of the filter then it would be getting hit with the light, too. Is there a good, tiny cliip on led solution for the lighting? I didn't really think that I was skimping by sticking with this hood. I just couldn't find many other solutions. Please advise.

 

Edit: Here's another idea. It's an acrylic tank so it would be pretty easy to build a sump/refugium that attaches to the back and just drill the tank. Something along the lines of what this guy did.

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Yeah it's my first saltwater aquarium. I've been researching them for a few months, though. The cost is the biggest prohibiting factor. Eventually I'll be the first person to respond to that "my husband cheated on me so I'm giving away his gigantic aquarium" post on craigslist but until I get lucky this seems like the easiest way to get into the hobby without a) shelling out a bunch of money in the beginning and B) not having a bunch of unexpected costs popping up. $40-$50 here and there isn't a big deal to me. $400-$500 is.

 

I'm not sure how it would be more trouble than it's worth. Take out the reflector, spray it with gloss white spray paint, reattach reflector, screw in 50/50 bulb. Sealing the whole thing does seem like overkill to me. I think that if I raise the hood a couple of inches off of the tank and make a new cover then I won't have any problems.

 

I had the same idea. I started with a 10 gallon tank I had laying around. This is what I spent:

 

$100 - Lighting

$20 - Refugium Lighting

$30 - AC70 (Filter/Refugium)

$30 - Small, good heater

$70 - GOOD Florida Live rock

$35 - Sand (should have bought it for 60 cents a lb from a LFS but I went with Caribsea)

 

This does not include the price of the tank or glass cover, the Chaeto, the salt and/or mixing supplies (I learned after buying this stuff that I could get saltwater premixed at my LFS). This also doesn't include a refractometer. Something you NEED with a small tank where using cheap little Hydrometer's will never really work all that well so that is another $100. I don't even have a protein skimmer!

 

Bottom line is that a correct setup at 2, 3, or even 10 gallons will still cost you over $200 without any livestock.

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