MikeG's 2 gallon contest tank

[MikeG]

Got started on my tank tonight, I am not going to be adding a sump and am going to try to keep it as simple as possible. I will most likely be adding some LEDs, debating between 4 and 6 at the moment. Tank will be mostly sps stocked from my other tanks.

I was going to use a koralia nano for some added flow but am contemplating a small pump on a closed loop because of the tiny volume to work with. We will see what happens.

Have no idea on a heater yet, going to see what the tank does and see what I can find during the cycling that will work again with such a small volume.

So far I haven't done much but made a few changes, they are more functional than pretty!
To get the most out of the existing light I lowered it as much as possible and cut a hole in the center of the cover. This will also allow for better gas exchange.

I had already painted the back of the tank black a couple days ago.

Well here we go...

 

[new2saltyfish]

2 mp40's will do the trick hahaha. looks good so far! i like that you're keeping it simple...a few of the others are awesome but so technical some rules should have been put in lol

 

[cstmpprl]

Looks good Mike, I dont think I would put in a heater. With your house temp and the lights, You may need a chiller LOL. My corals are doing great in the lower temp water..

 

[MikeG]

Looks good Mike, I dont think I would put in a heater. With your house temp and the lights, You may need a chiller LOL. My corals are doing great in the lower temp water..

I will definitely need some sort of heater, water is staying at a nice constant 66 degrees...

 

[Skeeter7424]

check out the "Deep Blue" nano heaters. They come at a fixed temp and are really small. I had one on my 4 gallon picotope and it kept the water steady at 76-79 degrees most of the time.

 

[MikeG]

That is the heater I am going to try, someone is using one of the 15W on one of the tanks already.

 

[cstmpprl]

Yah, 66 is low. Do you want to borrow a 15W and try it ???

 

[PasstheTorch]

Mike, you going to put a nice sized tang in there? It will really look good in the tank.... JK haha it looks nice man. Iike how you went way less technical. It will be more fun for you I think.

 

[MikeG]

Yah, 66 is low. Do you want to borrow a 15W and try it ???

Just ordered a 15W this morning so I should be all set but thanks Michele

Mike, you going to put a nice sized tang in there? It will really look good in the tank.... JK haha it looks nice man. Iike how you went way less technical. It will be more fun for you I think.

Ya my other tanks have all that high tech stuff so wanted to do something different here, low budget hands on with difficult corals for a challange.

 

[jackd625]

That is the heater I am going to try, someone is using one of the 15W on one of the tanks already.

I'm using it.... The room I have my tanks in gets a little cool, and the heater is having a real hard time. I should've went with a higher wattage or something else. I'll probably be switching it soon.

 

[jamesdong009]

Looks like you're off to a great start Mike. Any ideas on fish or are you keeping just corals?

 

[MikeG]

Looks like you're off to a great start Mike. Any ideas on fish or are you keeping just corals?

already have a baby clown from Michele to put in and a small goby that was in my 140 and ended up in the overflow. Both are in my frag tank right now. Might look for a second baby true perc.

 

[MikeG]

ordered a plug and play led kit from rapid led and heat sink. The kit can run up to 7 LEDs. I got a heat sink long enough that I could cut it in half and makde two strip lights one with 3 LED's and one with four and experiment with three, four, or seven. We'll see how it goes. Now I just need to figure out the flow.

 

[MikeG]

LEDs and heater came in today, not too happy with the heater

 

[letoan]

LEDs and heater came in today, not too happy with the heater

View attachment 74802

What happened?

 

[MikeG]

What happened?

They shipped it in one of thpose bubble wrap envelopes. Not much protection for glass when not in a box. I cut open the envelope and that is what fell out, package not intact and heater in pieces.

 

[letoan]

They shipped it in one of thpose bubble wrap envelopes. Not much protection for glass when not in a box. I cut open the envelope and that is what fell out, package not intact and heater in pieces.

That $ucks, sorry to hear.

 

[danzig]

I want that baby clown lol and sorry to hear about the heater bud better luck next time

 

[MikeG]

Luckily they replaced the heater for free, sounds klike they had a lot of issues as there response was "We are now using boxes for all our heaters and will ship out another one ASAP".

Got my LED's up and running today, running 4 royal blue and 3 crisp white. Should be plenty of light for sps. Right now the heat sinks are just zip tied to the stock light fixture, one in front and one in back. I will try to come up with some sort of mounting structure. Might leave them as is and just make an acrylic support that sits on the cover to hold the lights.

 

[MikeG]

Well I had to add a temperature controller for this heater, will be here by Monday. Tank was getting up to 84 degrees with no lights on over the past couple days, that just isn't going to work for me!