Thinking of terracing.......

[Work In Progress]

I am thinking about terracing the tank.
I really don't want to add weight to the tank, so adding more rocks and such, is probably not ideal for what I want.
I was thinking about styrofoam, but it's bouyancy worries me. However if I chose this option, I am wondering, what I should coat it with. What kind of sealer and such?
I found a 48" long 3" thick sheet of styrofoam at the local crafty place for $10.
Now I am thinking I could half it, then possibly stack the 2 layers and "carve it. LOL
I am trying to provide a mental pic...........but this is something I don't apparently do well :roll:
Anyway, would love to hear thoughts and ideas

[Perrush]

I came across the same problem.

This week I found an waterfall - element which is used in ponds.
It's from ubbink, so I don't know if it's available in the US. Some cuttings has to be done, but it's useable I think.

picture can be seen at :
http://users.pandora.be/perrush/rots3.jpg
('rots3' throug 10)

an other problem ... it was €72

[Deuce868]

I am curious to see how that works out? Do you just throw the gravel over it for plants then? It seems that substrate would sink towards the center or outside too much.

[digger]

Paint it then coat the whole thing with epoxy. When dry the epoxy is supposedly non-toxic.

I too am curious about the bouyancy. perhaps you can make enough places in your carving to put gravel/slate etc. so that the whole piece will have a negative bouyancy (and thus sink).

Since water is so much heavier than the styrofoam, you can probably just estimate the weight of the styrofoam at 0. One pound of water is 27.68 cubic inches (or a 3" cube). So for every 30 or so cubic inches of styrofoam you want to add a little over 1 lb of ballast.

[digger]

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_o...tmax_styro.htm

Here's a great article on the topic.

[GDominy]

If you don't mind me asking... Why are you concerned about the weight so much?

[Deuce868]

I think he is just worried if he can get it to stay down...if he is building just terrace walls it might be a problem. Then again..I doubt it with the substrate weight against it.

[GDominy]

I was refereing to the weight of wood or rocks not the styrofoam :-)

[Wasserpest]

Kelly, just an idea... after glue-ing the two or how many terraces together, go to your next river and find a bunch of nice rocks. You can heat them up a little and push them into the front of the styrofoam.

This will
- hide the styrofoam
- add enough weight so you don't have to worry about buoyancy
- provide areas that you can fill with substrate and plant

I did that in my tank and I like it... not sure if this is how you want it to look though.

[Work In Progress]

Originally Posted by Deuce868

I think he is just worried if he can get it to stay down...if he is building just terrace walls it might be a problem. Then again..I doubt it with the substrate weight against it.

::cough::SHE::cough::

Originally Posted by GDominy

If you don't mind me asking... Why are you concerned about the weight so much?

I dunno, most likely cause I am going to have to move the thing in a month or two. But I guess it really wouldn't matter since I would have to break the whole thing down anyway. OK should have thought that one out earlier.
I believe you had a lot of slate in one of you tanks Gareth, the loach tank maybe? What was the tank/slate size amount ratio?

If yall can imagine this, it would be a multi layer thing. There would be a "lip" on each level to prevent sand slippage and flat substrate syndrome.
Dunno this is all still in the dream stages, lol.
Will update more after reading the suggested articles and putting pencil to paper

[Perrush]

Originally Posted by Deuce868

I am curious to see how that works out? Do you just throw the gravel over it for plants then? It seems that substrate would sink towards the center or outside too much.

well actually I was thinking to cut it in half and use it like this :
http://users.pandora.be/perrush/rots4.jpg

It would just be 'a step up' in my case.

But it was just an idea. Not sure I'll ever use it.

[Deuce868]

::cough::SHE::cough::

oops...ok...give me my 20 lashes...sorry

[GDominy]

Originally Posted by Work In Progress

I dunno, most likely cause I am going to have to move the thing in a month or two. But I guess it really wouldn't matter since I would have to break the whole thing down anyway. OK should have thought that one out earlier.
I believe you had a lot of slate in one of you tanks Gareth, the loach tank maybe? What was the tank/slate size amount ratio?

If yall can imagine this, it would be a multi layer thing. There would be a "lip" on each level to prevent sand slippage and flat substrate syndrome.
Dunno this is all still in the dream stages, lol.
Will update more after reading the suggested articles and putting pencil to paper

I use a LOT of rockwork in all of my tanks. The loach tank is a 6 foot long 135 Gallon tank. I have about 150 pounds of slate and almost 100 pounds of wood in there...

In my 90 gallon I use LARGE rocks, like 8-10" suckers

My 45 Gallon is packed tight with wood so the shy loaches can hide

You get the idea...

As long as your retaining rocks are sitting top of gravel, or some plastic or something to distribute the weight then you should be fine.

[Anonymous]

I used the pink style styrofoam in the bottom of my 55g tank, its easier to cut. I used it to bring the substrate level up because my glass terraces would have too deep of gravel. I didnt not epoxy any of the foam and have not had any problems or chemical leakage. One thing im thinking about here is: terracing is building up layers of gravel to make it appear and actually be higher in certain areas. Why use foam when your going to take the tank down in a month and move it? Go to a glass store and buy straight glass pieces to do something like this: http://www.geocities.com/klewis61/caves.html or
http://www.aquabotanic.com/dutchsecrets.htm
Then u can clean the tank and silicone glue the pieces to the bottom. For my 55g, 15 different sized 1/4 inch pieces cost 25 dollars.

[Guttboy]

http://aquabotanicwetthumb.infopop.c...2&m=4416061423

Check out this from another forum but very applicable...Jay nice work.

Mike