With 5BIs you're not giving yourself enough space to maneuver, and you're playing with scared money. You become too cautious and aware of tilt. 2000 hands is too small for a decent sample size. In 2NL, don't raise 2+1BB. Raise something like 4+1 or even 5+1. Go for looser tables, not tighter ones IMO, because in 2NL the fish are generally looser and more station-y than tight, so just stick with the flow, get a really, really tight preflop range, and bring them all to valuetown.

And yeah, so far I've been buying in for $2. Had a period when I had between $20-30 where I bought in for slightly more (10% of my bankroll), but after trying that out, I think there's not much need to.

To be honest I don't think I'm playing that tight, my VPIP is 31.88%, and my PFR is 25.51%. I'm playing a decent amount of hands, and raising almost my entire range (which generally is about any pair, most suited connectors, J-T or higher). I'm playing at the tighter tables for 2NL, generally not playing any table wiht more than 40% players per flop.

My thinking is essentially I'd rather play against the slightly better players who know what they're doing, instead of the fish. I think I'd learn more that way, and it'd be easier to move up when I eventually do. I also like to play quite aggressively, so against really loose fish, it gets frustrated because I have to curb the aggression a lot.

I think 2k is very small size, 10k is a decent one. From this I think your playing 1 table which means you could probably run 20bb/100 but if you find loser tables where you'll get more action.

I'm guessing your buying in for 2? And you got 10, so playing tight is probably the optimal strategy.