# A cheapskates 90g planted rainbow tank



## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Some of you may remember http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/tank-journals-16/my-sons-low-cost-27g-aquarium-77154/

With some cajoling and a hard budget of $75 I managed to get the wife to allow me to get my own tank. 
So I scoured the local online classifieds and in early July found a standard 90g tank w/ stand, xp4, and a ton of useless (to me) items for keeping turtles in said tank for $150. The fellow was moving that day and needed it gone asap...

The stand wasn't even fit for a firepit so I gave it away, the xp4 I sold for $75, and the other accessories I sold for another $75 (found out later that some of it was worth a great deal more...dang) So at this point I've spent $0 

The tank itself is badly scratched on one side, has water marks that vinegar won't touch and the silicone is discoloured and peeling....woohoo project tank!!

*The Plan: *
Substrate - soil, sand and river rocks (<1.5")
Hardscaping - larger (3"-5") river rocks and driftwood
Plants - swords mainly, currently have 3x amazons, 5x red flames, 1x ozelot, 2x parviflorus, 3x red melon, 12x broad leaf pygmy chain swords, water lettuce, hyacinth and duckweed (rainbow fodder) most of which I got on trade the rest I already had. Will sell off excess once they fill out a bit.
Lighting - Coralife 2x 4' t5HO that I basically traded for a school of harlequin rasboras, and 2x 3' sunblaster t5 fixtures from my old setups if needed
Filtration - DIY sump for mechanical filtration, a few powerheads for circulation and if needed the XP4 from the 27g
Inhabitants - currently have waiting in another tank, a trio of parkonsoni rainbows and 7x celebes rainbows all of which I traded BNP's for, mts snails, assassin snails, and pond snails (again rainbow fodder). Will be ordering some Otto's from Charles once I'm closer to setting everything up.
CO2 - no
Ferts - no

*The Project*
I have cerium oxide around I'd previously used for my old trucks headlights so the scratches and water marks should be no problem to remove. And I definitely have tubes of silicone laying around in the workshop, not to mention a bunch of scrap wood that I can use to build a stand...

Ordered 3x glass hole saws from ebay for $7.50, plan on getting the fittings from the local plumbing supply

Pics of the progress to date to follow


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

*beginnings of a stand*

Pile of wood that will become a stand. I'm not a carpenter, I know just enough to be a danger to myself so feel free to comment









My very detailed plans for the stand









Minimum required tools for me to build the stand....That table saw is 20+ years older than me and is one of my many ongoing restoration projects
















The stands carcass coming together... every joint has glue up the wazoo and more screws than necessary. 





































Going to add a couple of drawers and shelves before I face and trim it. Then caulk and paint in and out


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

*The tank*

First things first, need to reseal this thing.
















Oops... my sharps container is behind the tank... tank mistake #1

Some of the scratches and water marks
















First pass with the cerium oxide - looks like an orange's murder scene
















My daughter's cat inspecting my work, it immediately turned it's nose up. Unfortunately it's right, going to need another run of polishing.


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Yes! I love it. Really looking forward to this.. I'd love to get some rainbows for my tank.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

*The Fish*

Keep trying to get pictures of the rainbows, but "hold that pose" means nothing to them

Parkinsoni male















I can't remember why that one picture turned out the way it did... wish I did

Some of the male Celebes with parkinsoni in the background























The background my little guy made for his tank a year ago doesn't make it easy to see some of the markings.


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## illogic (Oct 20, 2013)

i love rainbows, my phone has a 1 second delay on the camera so i have the hardest time taking pics aswell hahah


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Well, back from vacation and time to get moving on this project.
Big problem though, vacation ended up costing a whole lot more than I expected so my project budget of $75 needs to be pruned.

The hole saws I ordered back in June still haven't arrived and the seller is no longer answering emails...so I won't be drilling the tank.
That will save me a few buck on fittings and piping.

The stand is still a carcass only, so I've decided to make some minor changes, again in the name of saving money.
I had planned on putting 2 - 4" deep drawers along the top, to hold food and other small misc stuff. That's out now.
Haven't picked up any "nice" wood for the facing, so now I might leave it open - but I despise seeing a mess of equipment and cords under a tank
Still debating a shelf along the front for food and powerbars etc... thoughts? 
Rummaging around I found the cans of primer and white paint that was bought for the bathroom, so I'll use that. Probably 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of paint, sanded before and after each coat.
I have some scrap 3/8" foam underlay that I'll put in the cabinet to dampen vibration as well as under the feet to protect the laminate, still have to pick up some for under the tank

This weekend I'm planning to attack the glass with the cerium oxide again, do a final leak test and finish construction of the stand. Prime and paint during the week (or next weekend depending on the school situation). I should be able to start aquascaping the following weekend. :bigsmile:

Cost to date $7.50 for undelivered hole saws, so I'm not even going to count that.
Cost to date $0..... entire budget can be spent on fish and plants... woohoo


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Dry fitting of shelf and trim, everything is friction fit at the moment. 
Still playing with shelf height and depth, the one pictured is 10" deep, but wondering if I should have it 18" (2" shy of back wall)
Once I determine that I'll glue and screw the last bits together.

Really starting to like the idea of leaving the front open, if I decide otherwise in the future it's built in such a way that I can do the magnet trick and inset the door panels.










Would appreciate any suggestions or feedback


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

*Nothing wrong with a bit of child labour*

Got the kids filling all the screw holes and butt joint seams










Once the wood filler cures they will be sanding it by hand - I of course will use the orbital sander
It's only out of square by 1/8" at the front and 1/16 on the sides, not too bad for being built on an uneven floor and with a beer in hand the entire time.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Stand is basically done. 
Kids did a good job of filling holes and sanding, a few spots were missed but those will become their signatures










Still tossing around the idea of doors, maybe just to the height of the shelf? don't know.
I've built a dozen or so stands in my time but they were all "functional", this one I'm trying for a touch of "aesthetics" as well (somewhere my wife is laughing)

A few things that should have been common sense but for some reason didn't occur to me at the time and has left me with some questions
The shelf - why didn't I put a back rail on it? now everything will fall into the cabinet when pushed too far.
The shelf - why did I measure only one of my jars/bottles to determine shelf height? no no say he didn't..yup with the trim overhang I have 4" clearance
The shelf - (yet again - seems to be a theme) why did I install it without priming and painting it first or the inside of the cabinet for that matter? I looked like the kids after a finger paint fight once I was done
Caulking seams - Why didn't I look to see if the silicone I used for the tank itself was paintable? primer and paint just bead off of it and it looks bad

Oh well it's done except for a final sanding. Didn't get to repolishing the tank yet, will procrastinate to do that Friday. 
Hopefully get the area the tank is going to be set up in cleared out on the weekend. Means transferring 4-500g off of the old computer and tearing down the desk, oh did I mention that somehow I managed to weasel a new laptop out this as well seeing as I won't have a desktop anymore :bigsmile:

So I think I'm still on schedule, ordered a few fast growing plants to add to my collection of swords to help with the initial stabilization they should arrive Tuesday so the tank had better be ready. Once the tank is running I will be selling off these plants to keep to my budget.

Charles - hope you still the fish I want in a few weeks


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

*Frustrated.......*

Okay, I'm at about my wits end.
Spent a little over an hour polishing the glass again today...
And the cloudiness around the top 2" of glass was still there.

Can anyone suggest what else to try to get rid of it?


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

*I'm baffled*

This tank has become a nightmare.

Moved it from the workshop to the deck so I could do a second water test and clean it before bringing it into the house.
Filled it to the rim, and an hour or so later the water level was down 2"

Corners are all dry, and I can't see any water under the tank...
There's no way that there was that much evaporation

Have to wait until the morning to fully drain it (if it hasn't done that itself) and check the bottom seams.
Would really hate having to re-reseal it, especially as I intended to have it running by next weekend


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Woke up from a nightmare this morning - the tank had been set up and dumped it's contents all over the laminate floors...in order to get my heart rate back to normal I channeled my inner Spock... 
Having that much water disappear from the tank with no signs of it is completely illogical

Did I consider the facts.
Filled the tank with cold water on warm and breezy day, in full sun
Did I consider how much the tank would deflect and settle

So early this morning I refilled the tank again, the sun hadn't come up yet 
I marked the water level which was about 1/2" below the rim with a dry erase marker
and waited.....
patiently.....
I'm not very patient...
So I did my best to crawl under the deck - thick round peg and a small square hole - not a pretty picture
I can't see any signs of water dripping, so I'm hoping that my hypothesis is correct


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Tank crisis averted I think!
Finished stand by adding rubber foam accustical underlay to the inside floor and under the feet of the stand
Probably should have at least primed the underside to protect it










The tank is in place
Some blue construction paper from the dollar store for the background, may do the right side as well because of the sky light. And to prevent the ugly wall color distorting the colors in the tank.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

More work in the stand today while I wait for plants to arrive tomorrow(?). 

Planning out my electrical, mounted power bar and a few cord hooks etc.
Still trying to find the best placement of the UVfilter, I found a used turbotwist 3 online for $20 and another $15 for 2 new bulbs (not going to count this against my budget).
If I had it prior to building the stand I would have made the opening at the back a bit higher. oh well too late now.

Have to reglue the foam rubber mat on to the cabinet floor, dirty fish water would have better adhesive qualities than the glue I used. 

Tank is still holding water so I'm feeling more confident that there is no leak. Going to continue as planned with everything except the DSM, not doing any real finicky foreground plants now.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

The first of the plants have gone in, and starting to fill it. Will finish planting and filling Saturday.









Most of these plants will be taken out in a few months once my swords take off.
the 2 heaters are because I used the hose from outside and the water is a bit frigid, so wanted to warm it up quickly.

TO DO:
Pick up new suction cups for heater...no idea where they went to
find old maxijet for circulation
hook up XP4
hook up UV
Get more fish.....
Find excuse to setup another tank


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

tank is full, have to do some replanting after many got uprooted while filling it.

Discovered some critters (assassin snails, malaysian tunneling snails and a single cherry shrimp) that must have gotten into the canister filter while on the other tank so when it was poured into the 90 they were freed, some others came in on plants (pond snails grrr).
Saves me from having to find them and introduce them myself


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Got the UV and XP4 hooked up today....
It wasn't actually me that did the work though










I just can't fit into tight spaces like that


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Tank is doing good..sort of
No pictures right now because of a dark period, discovered a couple patches of string algae.
Plants have grown explosively so I will be able to prune out most of the affected areas.

Rainbows are going into the tank tomorrow, the 27g is going to have to be a Qtank for the next while. 
Have an order for dither fish and an algae crew arriving from Canadian Aquatic on Tuesday, 24 rummynose, 12 otos, couple dozen cherry shrimp which will likely become expensive food for the rainbows.
Was going to Q them in the new tank but figure the smaller tank would be better, just incase.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Trimmed out just over 4L of plants, removing anything that looked like it had string algae on it.
Did a 25% water change.










Added my rainbows.










After a parkonsoni broke the surface after a fly I decided to quickly put together a lid. Used an egg crate diffuser, trimmed to size, will probably use some zap straps to create hinged openings.










They were a bit stressed, but after 20 minutes the celebes were back to full display colors, and laying eggs everywhere. Really wish they would sit still long enough to get a good picture.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Best I could do to get a shot of the celebes displaying and mating










As you can see I have lots of particles in the water column at the moment, stirred up from pruning etc.
I'll be adding a powerhead to help get all that to the filter intake, in a few weeks.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Great looking tank! I really like the natural river rocks and melon swords look.


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## opt-e (Jan 25, 2014)

Love how this has turned out. Rainbows are awesome!


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Thanks

It's still a work in progress. - of course it is it's a planted tank it'll never be done :bigsmile:
Kids have been digging up the rocks for me, apparently our yard used to be bordered by a creek that was redirected upstream. 
So there's lots of river rock along the fence line, every few days they bring more in for me. eventually I want 75+% coverage.

Can't wait for the swords to grow in. Melons were already a decent size, the amazon, ozelot and red flame are all about 4-5 leaves at the moment.
Lost all my chain sword - tried growiing it emersed in the window, oops.

Oh well I still had a few bits of dwarf sag that'll do the trick (can never get rid of all of despite trying)


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Tank is doing good, with the exception of a couple of the starter plants.

My Egeria Najas went from a couple small sprigs, to overtaking half the tank in very little time

1 week ago - it's in the background behind the mts, and in the bottom left and and and.. you get the idea









Today









The red val is doing the same, but slower

But the swords are doing awesome. 
The melons and red flames are producing a new leaf every 4 days or so
The amazons every 2-3 days

Apono crispus has already been divided and is growing faster than I've ever seen it grow though it's still short

Celebes rainbows have really colored up and are happily laying eggs everywhere
Parkinsoni rainbows are even more happily eating all the eggs

school of rummynose and otos will be added in the next few days, hopefully the dither fish will allow me to approach the tank without the rainbows going pale


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Noticed a couple of things today

First thing - Bill Keane's "Not Me" ghost has apparently been in my house.  a 2" scratch on the upper right tank front and a pinhole chip center left. Amazing how quick the kids got ready for school after I noticed.









Second thing - while grilling my daughter (who was brushing her teeth without having to be asked) about the oopsies, I turned to look at the tank. Without realizing it I made the bathroom the best angle to view it from. Hmm either need to install a glass door or better exhaust fan for unobstructed viewing pleasure.....


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Things have moved along nicely. A few algae hiccups but that was to be expected because I rushed the set up.

My bout of hair algae was resolved quickly, but I had to almost completely remove the A. reineckii "Lilacina". It was the only plant affected.
I do have a few spots of cynobacteria and oedogonium which I'm controlling by pruning at the moment. Which you can see by the leaves of the red cabomba. Thinking my soil may not have been rich enough and may have to start dosing nitrates until it's truly under control.

have 2 stray crypto wendetii in the front that I have no idea how they got into the tank. I had some in the other tank but had given all of it away before starting this tank.










A couple of my Celebes rainbows have been duking it out regularly and one had it's lip ripped open pretty bad, have him in a floating breeder trap for now (left side of the tank just out of picture frame) and that has settled him down. I had initially consider euthanizing him because of the severity of the damage, but he's taking blood worm and duckweed readily so I'm going to be watching his recovery closely.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Of the 10 black mangrove seeds I bought only one has germinated. It's roots are about 2" long at the moment. 
Just transfered it from the jar I germinated it in to the tank.
I've never grown any before so this is an experiment


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Unfortunately that celebes passed away during the night. Woke up to a dozen or so assassin snails in the breeder trap. They made short work of him


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Looking good. Just keep up on the cleaning and your tank will come through fine 
I'm fairly certain a tank won't fully mature/cycle for AT LEAST 8 weeks. You'll be fighting algae and perhaps some sick fish until everything balances out.

What plant is in the back left corner? I say replace it for more mid-sized swords or midground plants if it starts to look a bit messy


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Reckon said:


> Looking good. Just keep up on the cleaning and your tank will come through fine
> I'm fairly certain a tank won't fully mature/cycle for AT LEAST 8 weeks. You'll be fighting algae and perhaps some sick fish until everything balances out.
> 
> What plant is in the back left corner? I say replace it for more mid-sized swords or midground plants if it starts to look a bit messy


Thanks Reckon
The plant is Ceratopteris Thalictroides. It was only planted as a fast grower until the swords really take off. It's a weed in my opinion and I have to trim about 2 litres of it each week or so. Can't wait to pull it out, but the rainbows do love it to lay eggs on.
The other plants might do better without it in there sucking up all the nutrients.
Fish health has been great, other than the one guy who was severely beaten up that passed away last night.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Ah yes, water sprite. It does serve nicely as a spawning mop.


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## AccidentalAquarist (Sep 11, 2013)

Still been dealing with the annoying cynobacteria outbreak. 
Did a 5 day blackout, which noticeably slowed it but nearly wiped out all my foreground plants.
So I picked up some KNO3. Really hate adding any chemicals but I hate BGA even more.
Dosed 1.5 tsp/day for 4 days. Did some heavy pruning and cleaning during a 50%WC. The cynobacteria sheeted off of everything easily and looks to be either eradicated or at least minimized. 

Down side - even after a 50% WC my nitrates are off the seachem chart (50+) and I have a bit of cloudiness. Cleaning the filter tomorrow should help with that.
Up side - After the WC it's raining rainbowfish eggs everywhere, they always go nuts after a WC and the high nitrates drove all my assassin snails out of hiding and onto the glass.... 3 have become 50 or 60 or more 
Anyone on the island need a couple assassins?


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