Mini-bow extras

[harial]

Ok so I decided that I wanted to have a small frag tank where I can put a few polyps from my master colony into a calm (peppermint(fiend) shrimp-free) environment for them to propagate without having to worry about missing frags.
So tomorrow I am going to walmart to to get a 2.5 g mini bow. (And no I don't plan to put any fish in it and the only corals in it will be softies like shrooms and zoos

) but I am not sure if I need to get anything else with it. (the packaging isn't very informational)
not sure if it comes with a pump to circulate the water.
I plan to have only live rock as my filter since there will most likely only be 1 snail in it. No crabs and DEFINITELY no shrimp.
also anyone have any idea as to the cycle of a tank that size using established water, sand and rock? My 12 gallon had all three and only took 5 days. I am hoping to get it tomorrow and put my frags in the day after. is this to soon?
I am worried because everyday I wait, more of my baby polyps get eatin. the shrimp does not seem to keen in the full size ones but the little ones around the edge are getting shredded.
And as usual I seem to post way more info than perhaps I should.
Harial

 

[chipmaker]

The mini bows come with a Tetra Whisper pump/filter, which set down inside the tank, not very wel suited or best choice for a saltwater tank.......
IMHO if your going to use already establised cured LR/LS from a tank there should not be much if any cycle time......When I setup our 2 gal pico, I used LS from an established tank, same for the pieces of LR, they came from same tank......(Dealer was taking down a display tank he had setup as they were moivng to new location).......so with new 2 gal tank in hand, a container of LS, and some LR and a 2 gal container full of SW and some other assorted frags of odds and ends, I headed home and setup everything.......I monitored water parameters, and it never spiked, and has been doing just fine.......
YOu may want to consider a different light, as the incandesant is kind of whimpy......I have heard the Coral life incandescent screw in flourescent light of 20 watts 50/50 does a good job in these 2.5 gal MB tanks, but they run pretty hot. Walmart sells a light which is similar to Coral Lifes floourescent screw in bulb but its rated 10 watts with an equivelant output of a 50 watt incandescent bulb and it has a k or 6500 IIRC and is more than sufficient for what yuour wanting to propagate. Its not a 50/50 type though.

 

[harial]

thanks that is really helpful, I am going to see if there is a better pump around the fish section.