# My "son's" low cost 27G aquarium



## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Hey all

Several years ago I had a minor case of multiple tank syndrome, around 15 of them if you didn't count the grow out, breeding, shrimp, snail and other non-display tanks.
When the kids were born my wife gently persuaded me to tear them all down. And she has forbid me from owning another tank since. 
So back in August 2013 I decided to set up one for my son as his 4th birthday present. :bigsmile:

I decided to go as low cost as possible, to appease the wife, 6 months later the tank is doing good and I figured I'd share my "son's" successes and failures getting it going.

August 2013
As most men my age, I spend a great deal of my time late at night cruising the web looking at...... craigslist and used(insert city name here) websites looking at aquarium supplies for sale. 
I came across a 27G with lighted canopy and an AC200 for $15, about 20 minutes later I was loading it into my car and not worrying about the change from the $20 I gave the previous owner.

The day of my little guys birthday party. The family was in the living room opening presents, while I raced around madly to set up my old metal tank rack and get the tank filled. 
I grabbed half a bag of play sand that I had left over from the sand box, ran a hose into the house and walked away to join everyone in the living room.....

For those not counting, that's 3 *BIG* rookie mistakes made in all of 5 minutes from someone who knows better.
1 - it takes time and patience to set up one of those metal stands, and I somehow ended up with a few parts left over. Specifically the shims that hold the shelves in place
2 - playsand!!! great substrate but only after it has been rinsed, and rinsed and then rinsed again
3 - hose into house without proper supervision

So the shims I was missing on the one side of the rack caused the shelf to tilt under the weight, the very muddy water was tipped out onto the rabbit whose cage is right next to where I set things up and the hose did what it all hoses do, keep producing water. A rushed and haphazard setup became a mad panic tear down, attempting to save the laminate floor and a rather grumpy long haired angora rabbit.

Next Day
The whole ordeal bent the legs on my old rack, so a new stand was needed. Out the scrap pile in my workshop I went and fashioned a workable stand, which to this day still needs to be completed (proper base, shelves, doors, coat of paint etc). 
But I rinsed the heck out of the sand, monitored the hose as it filled the tank, lo' and behold a tank was born.

A few days later a friend who I previously sold most of my old equipment etc to, came by with some fresh filter squeezings, lots of different plant trimmings, and a few fish to start cycling the tank. A big thanks goes out to him, you know who you are.

Living a block from the ocean made finding interesting wood easy, my little guy and I spent a few days picking through driftwood piles until we found enough to decorate a 250G tank with spares, A lot turned out to be way to big which was a shame because they were awesome pieces. We boiled and sun dried each piece 2x. When it was time to finally pick through it to find the best ones..... the vast majority had been buried in the sand box or deeper mud puddles out back. So 2 pieces were all that made it into the tank, which worked out nicely!

Fast forward to recently
I came across a package of several rena XP filters which I bought and sold individually at 50-75% off retail, giving me a XP4 to run on the 27G tank and a small profit.
Instead of spending a small fortune on filter media, I went to the local big box and bought a bag of baby quilt batting ($3.97) which I cut into 42 proper sized pads, and a 2 cubic foot bag of landscape lava rock ($7.99) for bio media - enough to last several years. I only had to purchase a pack of 20ppi and 10ppi pads to use for larger detritus. And I'm looking for a less expensive alternative for that.

Okay I'm starting to ramble, in case you haven't noticed
Pictures and specs to follow


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

This is the tank currently

Fauna:
4 - Boraras brigittae (red mosquito rasbora) - unfortunately all males
4 - ichogaster chuna (honey gourami) - 2 very horny and prolific pairs 
2 - Hyphessobrycon amandae (ember tetra) - males
10 - Trigonostigma hengeli (glowlight / lambchop rasbora?) want to increase this to 20
3 - Corydoras paleatus (pepper cories) - sexes tbd
3 - BN Plecos - sexes tbd
pond snails 
MTS snails

Flora:
green stuff that years ago I could name without problem, and now I have to guess

melon sword
giant val
java fern
crypto of some sort
and others...
feel free to help me out there

Lighting:
single 24" t8 6k, 13 hours on
left half of the tank also gets 2.5 hours of direct morning sunlight per day

Filtration:
XP4, using a XP3 impeller to reduce flow rate
mainly lava rock and poly batting

Dosing:
not

WC:
25% every 2-3 weeks
rain water collected in pail w/ powerhead to reduce bugs
Prime used if more water needed


Parameters:
Yes I'm ready for the flaming.....
I don't test my water, other than the pH of the water I am adding
I spend 30 min every morning and evening doing a fish count and observing behavior, this tells me more about whats going on than numbers I don't fully understand
I will get some kits soon..maybe


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks good and I love the back story. I've got my almost 5 year old hitting my wife up for a 65g set up right now, for 'his' tank. LOL

I really never test my water either, but that will be changing when I get my SW set up. For fresh, if my fish looked healthy I was good.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

For some reason every picture I try to upload is up side down. So It will take me a bit to flip and re-upload them....
There's lots of them...more than I have of the kids for some reason....
The excuse I am working on is that the fish move faster than the kids do, so I need more shots to get the perfect one......Think the wife will buy that?


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Cost breakdown to date

Initial aquarium w/ light and filter $15
substrate - maybe $2
NLS 5oz small fish food $15
OSI spirulina waffers 3.35oz x2 $19.98
4x honey gourami @ $3ea = $12
3x pepper cory @ $3ea = $9
4x hengeli rasbora @ $3ea = $12
Prime 100ml $9.99
XP filter $-180
filter media roughly $12
misc bits and pieces $20
everything else = free

So far I'm ahead of the game and have about $50 to spend before breaking even, thanks to that lot of filters I bought


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

I have a lot more pictures, but I maybe making some major changes to the tank so I'll wait before posting them.

I have the opportunity to get some 2.5" blue cobalt discus for a really good price. But haven't decided if I want to try adding them to a tank with spawning gouramies.Not to mention that most of the plants I have wouldn't be happy if I raised my temp a bit. Or if I should stick with my plan to double the size of my hengeli school.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

very nice!!! It's really good that your son is involving in this..  My 7 years daughter knows SA Dwarf Cichlids more than I do lol


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## greenfin (Nov 4, 2013)

AccidentalAquarist said:


> I have a lot more pictures, but I maybe making some major changes to the tank so I'll wait before posting them.
> 
> I have the opportunity to get some 2.5" blue cobalt discus for a really good price. But haven't decided if I want to try adding them to a tank with spawning gouramies.Not to mention that most of the plants I have wouldn't be happy if I raised my temp a bit. Or if I should stick with my plan to double the size of my hengeli school.


Ha!Ha! I think it's cute how "your son's tank" quickly became "I", "I", "I". I love your story and am keen to follow your journal. Made me smile. Right on, for your alternative aquarium supplies. I admire your (your son's) resourcefulness!


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

AccidentalAquarist said:


> For some reason every picture I try to upload is up side down. So It will take me a bit to flip and re-upload them....
> There's lots of them...more than I have of the kids for some reason....
> The excuse I am working on is that the fish move faster than the kids do, so I need more shots to get the perfect one......Think the wife will buy that?


Use a picture hosting site like photobucket or picasa and you can insert full sized images here instead those tiny attachments.

That excuse doesn't work, as you probably found out by now. I bought a DSLR to take pics of the kids and somehow have over 3000 fish pictures. And no, my wife didn't buy that either.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Thanks for the replies guys, and yes my little guys tank is definitely an "I" tank, "I" clean it, "I" do the water changes, "I" feed the fish, "I" do whatever it takes to make it happen LOL.



2wheelsx2 said:


> Use a picture hosting site like photobucket or picasa and you can insert full sized images here instead those tiny attachments.
> 
> That excuse doesn't work, as you probably found out by now. I bought a DSLR to take pics of the kids and somehow have over 3000 fish pictures. And no, my wife didn't buy that either.


I'm working on uploading my pics to such a server, but I don't dare use anything other than my phone's camera else my wife realize it's time to get a new DSLR. That's money I can spend on the tank!

BTW 2wheelx2 - love the pics of your Discus, if your ever interested in donating them to a budget tank let me know and I'll spend a a few hundred setting it up...lol


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## Peekay (Jan 27, 2014)

Ha! 
My son at 8 found one of my old aquarium books, and asked for a tank for Christmas. After many non-tank years (same story as you... the babies!), Santa was VERY happy to deliver.  My tank journal reads a lot like yours. Kids and aquariums = awesome, even if "I" do the work. 

Hilarious set up story! And lovely gouramis! Looking forward to seeing how this develops.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Well I (my son) didn't grab the those discus when I (he) had the opportunity. But in hindsight that's probably for the best. He's not the type of guy to keep up on ten million water changes a week during the grow out period.

I was also debating trading one of my (son's) pair of honey gouramies for something else. Because both pairs seem to be in constant breeding mode, and everything else in the tank has been chased to lower center of the tank. When a buddy called me with a rather pleasant offer. He just sold his house and is between homes, and needed somewhere to house his many tanks for a short to long term. :bigsmile: :bigsmile:
His wife would prefer the water in the house be located in the taps and drains unfortunately, So I volunteered to help where ever possible. Which brings up a question http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/aqua-lounge-7/love-hate-aquarium-relationship-81794/#post609914 sorry for huge url
Today I went to his place to see how I could help, Some of his stuff was already at his temporary home. The one tank, a custom 20G that I sold him years ago and I absolutely love, I talked him into keeping - my stupidity. One 90G was so overrun by BBA that I couldn't see my wrist while digging around for hardscaping (lots of direct sunlight, and being between houses so no time to clean) and a 40G breeder.Plus a few other smaller tanks which he is keeping.

I happily agreed to house the 40G and any fish he had for however long it took...longer the better of course
Unfortunately what he had was "fish" "BNpleco" and chain loaches, It'll take some time to ID everything. I'm sure he knows more specifics but he's preoccupied moving.

After a quick tear down and long drive the tank was rapidly reassembled and populated with with the inhabitants from a few of his tanks.

Current inhabitants
12-18 chain loaches - if they'd sit still long enough to count
8-10 huge cherry shrimp I scooped from another tank that he's keeping
2 (m/f) yellow? BNP can't fully see them as they decided to hide in a huge log...and still haven't come out despite that log being way to large for the tank (they almost got transported dry thank god for rubbermaid totes) 
1 (M) black with yellow spot pleco (3-4")
7-8 adult BNP who all seem to be fighting madly for new turf at the moment
30++ >1" BNP
3+ cories of differing color schemes
3-5 tiny tiny black w/ yellow spots plecos (cross breeding??)
Untold numbers of assassin snails and MTS snails

XP4 filter

marineland LED lighting

Rena heater

Lots of plants that'll be easier to identify once I remove the BBA

So 1 pair of gouramies are going in the new tank, and after that I'll be transferring fish back and forth between tanks to spread out bio load and treating them as the same tank. ala MTS :bigsmile:


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Update 
The little guys tank is doing awesome, plants are getting a bit overgrown and there is a fish or two too many in it....so.....
Guess I have to start a slightly larger tank :bigsmile:

And not to be outdone by my soon to be 5 year old, I'm going to try and make it happen on an even tighter budget.
If all goes well I will also make money setting up our 90g planted rainbow tank.. probably be in a different thread


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Seeing as I took over my son's tank to set up mine. The kids have been wanting to redo their tank.
They've been scouring through my books and looking at lfs for the right combination of fish.

So far they have chosen a school of male bettas, an alligator gar, some guppies, bristle nose plecos, cichlids and a "nemo" clown fish
suspect I'll have to give them some guidance with this choice.

Now that I built a nicish stand for the 90 I will have to build one to match for the 27. Good opportunity for my little guy to use tools (and colorful langauge when problems arise )

Complete redo coming up


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Haha. You know you're into planted tanks when you restart for a new look after 9 months


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

It's actually been 1 year 3 weeks and a day. But who's counting


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