uneven lighting... ok or algae city?

[Sammie7]

I'd suggest doing your scape, then growing out the HC and clover immersed for a few months so their root systems develop and can hold the substrate contours in place when water is added. when you add water, their growth will have to convert to submersed, but that should just take another month or so.
-Jared

Immersed and submersed are the same thing. Emmersed is when a plant is grown out of water and immersed is when it is grown under water.

To the OP, have you though of creating some sort of terrace with acrylic or something to get the height you want without actually using a whole ton of substrate to get the slope you want? If that makes any sense.:nilly:

 

[mellowvision]

I have thought about that... but I worry about the space under the structure... both being full of stagnant water, and alternately being a place to trap fish... I've also considered a shelf of some sort, creating a cave underneath, but I've done that in a smaller tank and it's a bit of a pain, and creates hard to vac areas. it's also fairly small, but still requires a lot of support to keep it from sliding down.

I've also considered using 2 flat pieces of stone vertically, to create walls about 8" apart, and then filling in between with sand and stone. I think this could look pretty cool, but would still have a large area of stagnant substrate. I realize I could have a filter output under the sand to create a spring like flow, but I have no expereience with this and worry that it would speed erosion.

 

[Sammie7]

What if you took all the water out and siliconed the acrylic in place and then waited until it cured and then put everything back in? Then you wouldn't have to worry about water or fish getting under it. And you could just scrape the silicone off if you wanted to remove it.

 

[mellowvision]

well, this set up would be in a new tank, not my existing 20... so there's no water to remove. but I don't like the idea of siliconing things into a tank... not only could it fail and leave me in a bigger problem, but to really seal it you'd have to go over the existing corner beads, which could end up being a real problem if you want to remove it, I'd hate to end up pulling out a corner bead because it was stuck to a shelf.

I'm looking to create a more natural embankment

 

[Sammie7]

True. Good luck then.:dance2:

 

[mellowvision]

thinking about it more, one reason I'm making this so difficult, is that right now, the tank acts as a room divider, so it is visible on 3 sides... I may be moving soon(2-3 months), and have no idea where the tank would be placed, since I haven't gotten a new apartment... if the tank had a true back, and wasn't a divider, it might be a lot easier. also, everything I've been talking about doing here would be much harder to move than a normal tank layout.... sigh. I hate the uncertainty of it all!

 

[jmorris]

Immersed and submersed are the same thing. Emmersed is when a plant is grown out of water and immersed is when it is grown under water.

Oops... I misspelled, but I am fully aware of the difference. Anyway, Tom Barr is having great luck doing this with some of his tanks lately, and it seemed like a good posibility for this tank design.

-Jared

 

[mellowvision]

yes, you are right, and I have considered doing this with hc along the sloped area, to help control erosion... unfortunately, I'd be swapping filters lights and livestock from another tank, and both tanks need to reside in the same spot, so I'd be in a tough spot trying to manage it all at once. I'd basically have to keep the fish in another tank temporarily, etc...

 

[phanmc]

Terraced layouts is pretty common among dutch aquascape design where large logs or stones are used to create the different level terraces. People have also used heavy duty foam since they can sculpt it.

Algae will naturally appear quicker in the more bright areas but if you maintain a good fert routine and high plant mass it shouldn't be a problem, just like any other tank.

 

[jmhart]

I've created kind of a "ledge" in my tank. Using rocks I created kind of a wall to hold back the substrate to create a plateau. At the moment the downside is a loss of water space, which in a 30 gallon is a big deal. However, any day now I'm getting a 45 gallon with an additional 8 inches of vertical water space. I won't mind the plateau so much then.