Hi Ivan,
I'm currently doing up a new 4-footer, but I've had a 2-footer several years ago that went well for several months until an anemone crashed it.
I would HIGHLY recommend a protein skimmer - it really works wonders. I was away for 4 days just after I placed my live rock in the 4-footer, and when I came back the water had turned cloudy. After getting a good skimmer, the PS pulled out a whole load of jet-black gunk and the tank was saved. And the rocks survived happily ever after. [] You could get a cheap taiwanese counter-current make, which was what I used on my previous 2-footer - otherwise, without a sump (you can't use those in-sump models obviously then), you might have to fork out about $300 or so to get a stand-alone model.
Another thing - you shouldn't have put in any animals straight after you placed the live rock in. Leave the LR to cure first, then add. The LR will add sufficient quantities of ammonia, NO2 etc to build up a bacterial colony which will arm your tank to handle larger bioloads later.
What fish do you intend to keep? Try not to get coral-eating ones if you're going to keep any corals at all. Maybe tangs, royal gramma, firefish, cardinals and damsels will do ...
Regards,
Hong Yee
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