Fill my tank with bricks??

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Bricks? Concrete? Foam and concrete?

So here is the deal. I am building a 8x4 inwall quarium that is 30" high. In order to make the aquarium seem as deep as possible (front to back) i am borrowing the basic principle of aquascaping and making the bottom slope up towards the rear. I am thinking the back will be 8" higher.

If this was a glass tank i would just use silcone to attach foam to the bottom of the tank. But it is acrylic so that is out.

So what do you think i can use as filler? Sand would be expensive. Foam and bricks then sand? Tons of broken live rock?

Open to suggestions or possible pitfalls. I have not seen many tanks set up like this. Or any for that matter

 

[KrisReef]

What animals will you keep? Sand dwellers need sand, but live rock and rock rubble have better surface area for a filter.

 

[JoshH]

Bricks? Concrete? Foam and concrete?

So here is the deal. I am building a 8x4 inwall quarium that is 30" high. In order to make the aquarium seem as deep as possible (front to back) i am borrowing the basic principle of aquascaping and making the bottom slope up towards the rear. I am thinking the back will be 8" higher.

If this was a glass tank i would just use silcone to attach foam to the bottom of the tank. But it is acrylic so that is out.

So what do you think i can use as filler? Sand would be expensive. Foam and bricks then sand? Tons of broken live rock?

Open to suggestions or possible pitfalls. I have not seen many tanks set up like this. Or any for that matter

Could you throw together some acrylic boxes that are sloped with some layered strips to give the sand something to bite to?

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I thought abot acrylic boxes.. but then i was worried abot having all this stagnant water down there? Perhaps its not really an issue.

I wont be THAT sloped but i did think some epoxy woth sand thrown on it would give enough bite for it not to slip.

 

[Goodair]

What about making a acrylic shelf, with silicone so water doesnt get inside. Have it in multple steps so the sand bed doesnt get too deep as you go further back.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I thought about that. I can easily make an acrylic wedge that is water tight... but then it would be buoyant, and it would eventually overhwlem the silicone as sikicone doesnt bond well..or at all really, to acrylic.

I guess i am looking for a cheap material that i could use to fill that space.

What if i formed sand from the beach (after baking it) into a wedge and poured epoxy over it? Cement keeps coming out as the best idea. Or cement with foam noodle shreds in it so its not so heavy.

Its not a trivial amount of material. From my calculations its 13.5 five gallon buckets full.

 

[sfgabe]

Cement is a very bad idea. Any kind of human made stone aggrigate has tons of lime in it, and probably lots of other unknowns. You will effectively create a tank full of limewasser as it leaches out.

PVC tubes can be shaped into whatever you want. And covered in bits of reef safe rubble with silicone. You could even make a pvc or acrylic shelf and coat it in reef safe silicone and cover that in sand and rubble if you want a sand bar sort of look.

You're not going to keep water out of whatever you put in there, so your best bet is to make sure it flows through neatly. Drill small holes so there's no air trapped and weight it down with some stones.

You can see the beginning of my build thread for how I got a vertical element this way.

 

[homer1475]

Cement is a very bad idea. Any kind of human made stone aggrigate has tons of lime in it, and probably lots of other unknowns. You will effectively create a tank full of limewasser as it leaches out.

You do realize people make rocks and structures out of man made concrete all the time with 0 issues? The trick is to let it cure for a few days, then soak it in RO/DI so it leeches out before you place it in the tank.

 

[sfgabe]

You do realize people make rocks and structures out of man made concrete all the time with 0 issues? The trick is to let it cure for a few days, then soak it in RO/DI so it leeches out before you place it in the tank.

Not something I would trust in a new tank, but just my 2c

 

[Malifry97]

Cement is a very bad idea. Any kind of human made stone aggrigate has tons of lime in it, and probably lots of other unknowns. You will effectively create a tank full of limewasser as it leaches out.

PVC tubes can be shaped into whatever you want. And covered in bits of reef safe rubble with silicone. You could even make a pvc or acrylic shelf and coat it in reef safe silicone and cover that in sand and rubble if you want a sand bar sort of look.

You're not going to keep water out of whatever you put in there, so your best bet is to make sure it flows through neatly. Drill small holes so there's no air trapped and weight it down with some stones.

You can see the beginning of my build thread for how I got a vertical element this way.

Cement is actually very common for making backgrounds in the aquarium hobby. As long as the OP allows for proper time for the cement to leach (2-4 months) he should be fine.

 

[lapin]

You could use starboard and make layers. Each layer a bit shorter than the next til you get to the top. Epoxy sand to the surface or use that textured sand colored paint. Your sand will want to move down hill over time You could attached 1/2 round strips of acrylic or sq rod to act as a dam to hold back the sand.

You can also read MIchaels thread if you have time

Weeds - Reef Central Online Community

Weeds Marine Plants & Macroalgae

reefcentral.com

 

[WVNed]

I recently built am aquascape with fired clay brick and pond foam.

I covered the brick with landscape cloth and glued it down with pond foam

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

This thread actually provided me with an idea that is a combination of several. What if i took large pvc pipes and filled then with water then capped them off? I could hot glue them to the bottom, then fill sand over the top.. or a section of starboard and sand?

Also...is this just a dumb idea??

 

[sfin52]

@Paul B he makes his own rocks. I'm sure it's on here some place.

 

[motortrendz]

This thread actually provided me with an idea that is a combination of several. What if i took large pvc pipes and filled then with water then capped them off? I could hot glue them to the bottom, then fill sand over the top.. or a section of starboard and sand?

Also...is this just a dumb idea??

I wouldn't fill them with water that could wind up being bad... maybe sand.

But sand is basically self leveling in water, especially with current in the tank, so all the sand would just slide down to the lowest point of the slope. You would have to make barriers like in landscaping and then you would have steps of flat sand with a rock retaining wall.

 

[Urtoo]

What about eggcrate or light diffusers. Zip em together like a box and it’s also a pod fuge and tunicate grow out

 

[Goodair]

You can use cement they sell on the aquarium stores. But something like quikrete might have additives in it that might not be safe, not sure if I would use it.

 

[hart24601]

I would start with PVC tubes, fill with cement and cap them. Shouldn't leak but even if get a tiny hole it won't be enough to matter.

From there can put a material to slope over them, small rocks or whatever.

 

[jlts21]

huh? you're making the bottom sloped to make it appear deeper? Are you wanting something so that the rock stays in place and doesn't fall/slide to the lowest point? I'm sorry, I'm just confused as to how this would work. I would think you would have to support the bottom (to keep it from blowing out) since it is sloped and not flat.

If you fill that "triangle" up with sand (cured as a wedge or whatever) that slope is not going to make the tank appear deeper, that space will be filled with that sand

 

[sfin52]

Man made rock vs the rest.....

Visit GARF.ORG Garf has been advocating for man-made rock for ages. Their website is a bit funky, but GARF has been around almost as long as the fishes.

www.reef2reef.com

Here you go