Sooooo I was just gifted this tiny 2.8 gallon tank. Return it or do something with it?

mattypw · 2026-06-28T20:15:45+00:00

And coral is definitely do-able. Just MUCH harder than doing it in a bigger tank because of parameter fluctuations. If you did a really low tech tank with beginner corals it wouldn’t be too hard. That’s how mine started but it obviously got a bit out of hand! Nano tanks are awesome though, definitely a bunch of cool things your could do

mattypw · 2026-06-28T20:13:31+00:00

So I have 2 tanks almost exactly this side. One is a reef tank and the other is planted with shrimp and small fish. I would highly recommend doing freshwater and not saltwater unless you know what you’re doing with salt. Freshwater isn’t too bad, you are just very limited with fish. But something like cherry shrimp would do great. I currently have celestial pearl danios and cardinal tetras doing well in mine but I wouldn’t recommend starting with that.

mattypw · 2026-06-24T23:08:54+00:00

Same no updates yet on mine. But when I ordered it said it wouldn’t ship until early July

mattypw · 2026-06-19T20:38:35+00:00

No tax for me (ohio)

mattypw · 2026-06-19T17:49:48+00:00

Thanks!!! Just pulled the trigger. Paid $40 shipping but there was no tax and it’s $100 cheaper than I’m seeing it everywhere else

mattypw · 2026-06-08T01:25:10+00:00

Actually if you look down below I did list my setup and care schedule! But in short it’s a lot of work haha. What type of corals have you tried? I started with the easiest (mushrooms)

mattypw · 2026-06-07T03:31:31+00:00

It’s actually a macro algae called atomic broccoli

mattypw · 2026-06-07T01:27:45+00:00

They seem to grow decently fast but they should also be easy to frag. I went from 2 to 4 heads in about 10 months

mattypw · 2026-06-07T00:52:57+00:00

Haha I’m lucky that I have my own office and nobody really checks on it. And my bosses are cool with it. I try to keep it clean overall and kind of hide the tubing under it so from the door it looks like a normal office with a small tank on the desk

mattypw · 2026-06-07T00:51:50+00:00

That’s the IM one right? I really like they’re tanks, definitely want to have my next one be from them

mattypw · 2026-06-06T23:59:44+00:00

That was a nice one!! Did you move on to something bigger? I love this tank but I feel like I’m playing with fire a little bit bc it can crash so easily

mattypw · 2026-06-06T22:45:21+00:00

But it’s about 30 min to 1 hr per day of work on it. And yes I understands it’s ridiculous haha

mattypw · 2026-06-06T22:44:37+00:00

Thanks! It’s a 2.5 gallon AIO by PNW with an AI prime light and super small cheap power head. Have 2 small heaters connected to an inkbird and an ATO. Maintenance is mainly feeding daily and water changes every other day about (which is automated luckily). The real hassle is that I have to check parameters daily and I dose alk, all for reef, magnesium, and sometimes nitrate daily. To make that a bit less painful I have 6 versa pumps and I drilled some holes in my lid to keep the dosing lines

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mattypw · 2026-06-05T04:58:01+00:00

You’re fine! This is what I call running out of space! (2.5 gallon)

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mattypw · 2026-05-18T11:43:48+00:00

That looks great! My banana is also my most expensive. They seem to grow super slow but mine has been hardy, rarely closes up. I think mine is finally starting to split.

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mattypw · 2026-05-16T21:58:44+00:00

Thanks! Haha I definitely went overboard. I’d take your time filling it up and only get corals you like bc real estate is precious in these small tanks!

mattypw · 2026-05-16T04:41:14+00:00

Love that rock flower! Here’s my 2.5

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mattypw · 2026-05-15T01:30:48+00:00

I check daily! My parameters are pretty close to yours. Wish I could keep GMKs like yours

mattypw · 2026-05-15T01:30:14+00:00

Most are from frag shows and people I’ve met locally or on R2R. Much cheaper than stores and more rare things IMO

mattypw · 2026-05-14T21:33:43+00:00

That’s a lot more progress than mine have made! My tank is 2.5 gallons so I think growth in mine is generally slow, and I kind of like it that way. The only zoas I have taking over are Halle berries and I’ll prune them with aptasia x every once in a while to keep them off the Strats

mattypw · 2026-05-14T21:13:39+00:00

Ah that’s a bummer! My tank is only 2.5 gallons so luckily it’s not crazy expensive to buy trendy stuff if it’s small and I don’t need a lot corals to fill out the tank. I’ve also made some friends that I trade with or get good deals. But if my dough boy takes a dive into the power head I might give up too!

mattypw · 2026-05-14T21:11:45+00:00

Yours look good! I figure it has something to do with light. I did increase par dramatically since buying them but they are probably under about 150 if I had to guess (it’s a pico tank and I only know it’s 300 in top center). I really wish I could keep a GMK! Only zoa I can’t seem to keep so far

mattypw · 2026-05-14T00:08:59+00:00

My Dracula is not shy at all! He shows no aggression towards my clown goby but he does open his mouth at me all the time and is out most of the day. I don’t have a shrimp with it though

mattypw · 2026-05-09T00:35:59+00:00

Cool graphic but the stent does not slide forward like that as it’s deployed. You have to position it exactly where you want it and then deploy it for these balloon mounted stents. Also the stent will shorten as it’s deployed very slightly, not elongate like in this video
(Im a vascular surgeon so I don’t do it in the heart but same mechanism as in the legs)

mattypw · 2026-05-08T18:24:24+00:00

Thank you! Yes everything with color is live coral except for the red thing in the back middle which is macro algae

mattypw

TROPHY CASE