Solid rock side walls on inwall tank?

pdxmonkeyboy · Jan 28, 2020

I'm building a 4x 8 in wall tank, room divider, very open aquascape. I have been thinking however since the side walls will be blacked out.. why not build a skinny rock wall to cover the sides and out coral on it?

Or do you think this would make the tank look smaller? Just not excited to be cleaning an additional 20 sq ft of tank wall of I dont need to.

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Copingwithpods · Jan 28, 2020

I think implemented correctly with some shelves for frags it would look awesome. You could also stealth mount what ever powerheads you're going to use in recessed holes and run the wires being the rock for a cleaner look.

pdxmonkeyboy · Jan 28, 2020

That is what I am thinking. I will have a huge closed loop system so only a pair of gyres up high for flow. I just don't want the tank to look like a cave. Or maybe that would be cool?

Copingwithpods · Jan 28, 2020

A reef in a cave or a valley like aqua scape sounds awesome

mtfish · Jan 28, 2020

Will it make your tank look smaller? Sure. Would it look cool? Sure!

fish farmer · Feb 1, 2020

Pretty much what I did.

29 gallon in wall with left and right stacked cemented rocks. One verticle side was created with eggcrate zip tied to my PVC return line. I took marco cement and small bits of marco rock to hide the egg crate and PVC.

The right side is eggcrate/marco rock/cement/PVC return line. The top shows a similar structure on my overflow box, eggcrate and rock. I've since removed the overflow cover.

pdxmonkeyboy · Feb 1, 2020

You have another pic with that clear water stuff? Lol.

sp1187 · Feb 1, 2020

I did a wall on one side to hide the overflow and gyre.
second gyre is behind the tower on the left.
if I read that right, your tank is 4' x 8'?
I think you'll be fine.

S.Pepper · Feb 1, 2020

sp1187 said:
I did a wall on one side to hide the overflow and gyre.
second gyre is behind the tower on the left.
if I read that right, your tank is 4' x 8'?
I think you'll be fine.

looks awesome!!

crusso1993 · Feb 1, 2020

Here is another thread that you will probably enjoy...

Aquascape with STAX think dimensionally!

This is the end result of a lot of work and thinking dimensionally. Yes thats right dimensionally! Lol I will try to walk through and show you how I went about building this amazing Aquascape in my newest build. Please feel free to ask questions along the way and I will happily answer any that...

www.reef2reef.com

John08007 · Feb 1, 2020

Seem done years ago that peiple used eggcrate, suppose zip ties to attach some coral rock onto the eggcrate. They then filled in around the coral with pond foam(like expanding foam fir water) think they then used fiberglass resin to attach crushed coral onto the foam.

Been years so i may be leaving something out-sure you cam search and find it

pdxmonkeyboy · Feb 4, 2020

That does look really good!

Here is a picture of my tank. I just welded the bottom sheet on tonight. 8x4x30.

Acrylic scratches easy but man the clarity of it puts glass to shame. It's hard to even see the front pane.