Does anyone have a tiered planted tank?

[Bunny13]

I was wondering if anyone has used a tiered system in their planted tanks. I was reading about them in a book I got from the library and I was curious if people use them or if anyone has pictures of a set up using a tiered system. Thanks!

[TwoTankAmin]

I do---



I didnt like the layout above and redid it (below), but it shows the styro base on the first terrace.



Then it got plants: June 02



Then for a while it looked like this. Feb 04

[jhj]

Very neat TwoTankAmin...

[kveeti]

I just have 2 tiers. Side view:


The wall is small rocks epoxied together, sitting on a styrofoam base (based on TwoTankAmin's idea when I saw it on AC). My styrofoam is only a ledge under the rocks (the gravel behind the wall goes all the way down to the glass) and they are backed by "melted" plexiglass strips.

[nursie]

In my 75 gallon.. http://aquariumboard.com/forums/gene...ies-tanks.html
I have a tiered area. It's not across the whole tank..only part.
you can see it from the front...
I scavenged through the rock bins at a couple lfs looking for small squarish flat rocks. Ended with mostly slate. I built the wall like I would a stone wall...alternately placing the stones...backfilling against them, and angling it in. We'll see how it lasts. The Kuhli loaches wiggle in between the stones into the substrate in the upper tier.

[Bunny13]

Thank you guys for the pictures!!! They look great!

[djlen]

I have always found these tiered tanks fascinating, and very realistic looking, but due to a complete lack of artistic talent I've never even given a thought to trying to build one myself.
If any or all of you could give us some information on how to build these things.....type of epoxy, other parts (styrofoam?) necessary etc., and where in the world did you get the little tiny, perfectly shaped pieces of stone for the wall TwoTank?
I'm thinking(this could and usually is a problem) that maybe with a tier or two I might be able to grow HC in my 2 wpg 55s, if I can raise it high enough.
Any info. would be helpful.

Len

[Dangerdoll]

hey TwoTank, what size tank is that? That is quite an impressive tank might I add

[TwoTankAmin]

It is a 50 gal. The rocks came from local stone and gravel yard. I went in with a 5 gal bucket and filled it with slate scraps which I broke intro pieces. The back (inside) of that wall is not even I assure you.

I actually used a 1:1 scale posterboard mockup to draw the layout (inc where wood and plants would go). I trial fitted stones for countless hours to get what I wanted. Then I set it aside, cut the poster board to use as template for the bottom base, thencut it again for top base. The bottom base has a hollowed out space in the back into which I placed a heavy piece of rock for weight.

The rocks are siliconed onto the styro and then to each other and then filled in from behind in an attempt to seal in the gravel so gravel ferts would not leach into the water. The two terraces were siliconed together when placed in the tank. Finally the back edges were siliconed to the back glass using black silicone.

The reason for the design was to avoid haveing gravel depths overly deep. I have 3.5+ inches for bottom of tank and then each terrace is a similar depth. Without the styro bases I would have had as much as 11 inches of gravel for the top terrace depth.

[RTR]

C'mon Len, tiers are easy. Use glass or plastic, coat w/epoxy and arrange the rocks or pebbles (quickly), let dry/cure, soak a few days for safety, and you have instant walls. The rock wall technique Nursie used works and looks much better, and if you are parient, epoxy putty works wonders for securing it indefinitely (but really tires you fingers out). Be sure to make interlocking sections so that you can move it in an out without breaking your back or the tank glass. I always rested on styro within the tank.

I used to do lots of tiered tanks with slate or shale, but gave up the practice years ago - I got lazy. All of my tanks are flat now.

[Baby_Girl]

why do you use styrofoam in the bases?

[kveeti]

I used styrofoam (1) for a flat base where no gravel could escape under. The scariest moment was siliconing it to my tank bottom. I planned it for the long-haul but I did figure if I ever needed to take it apart, whatever silicone I couldn't scrape clean would be hidden by gravel, anyway. (2) so the rocks wouldn't be sitting right on the glass in case of any pointy bits or pressure points and (3) so I wouldn't have to build my rock wall so high. The base gravel of the bottom layer just covers whatever styrofoam is sticking out from the bottom of the rocks.

[djlen]

How about this? I was reading somewhere, about using PVC pipe. Cutting them to various lengths and filling them part way with foam or some other material and putting substrate into the top couple of inches for plants.
Stepping up by cutting longer lengths as you go to-wards the back of the tank. You could shape the size by using different diameter pipe in certain spots.
And then gluing or epoxying the stone onto them. does this sound do-able?
Seem like you could make a very sturdy structure outside the aquarium and that would alleviate the need to glue/epoxy it into the side or bottom of the tank.
If this is off the wall, say so, because it sounds reasonable to me and easier to shape than trying to cut hunks of styro-foam smoothly/evenly.
Also, I guess any drinking water safe epoxy would do the trick, right?

BTW Robert, I've never considered trying to tier a tank and have no clue about this 'technique' stuff you refer to. I'm what you might call a tier newbie. Ha, Ha.
I didn't know you were and expert or I would have gone directly to you rather than face all this humiliation.

Len

[kveeti]

The pipe sounds doable, but almost more work. You'd be restricted to straighter lines. (Not saying that's bad, as mine is pretty straight.) I used a cut pipe in my old tank set-up at one end to section off an angled corner and a plunked-down stone wall at the other. Both had "drifting" substrate. On the stone wall it was always oozing out the bottom and every gravel vacuum I'd put more back from in front to behind. With the pipe, it came from the sides (where the pipe supposedly was cut to fit right to the glass). Not so much though, it wasn't as bad as the stone wall. It could have been me and I just did them both wrong, however I knew with this tank that I wanted the silicone seal. Behind my rocks is a plexiglass wall, also siliconed to the tank walls. The gravel behind that baby ain't moving.

Cutting styrofoam was easy. Even for me - I used an exacto-blade (and I'm sharp-object-impaired).

For my rocks, I used putty epoxy, like this:
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...tepoxystick4oz

Even better (coloured!):
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...ikstonegrey4oz

[JinxXx0085]

I want to try a tiered tank now!!
I have a question about the syrofoam... its exposed to water or does it needs to be covered with something to be protected? Any risk of having syrofoam messing around with the water parameter? I sure do really want to try thais on a 10g.

[djlen]

I hope Bunny13 doesn't mind that we've sort of hi-jacked her thread.

kveeti - a couple of questions: Where did you get the Styro-foam....I'm assuming that they came in block form? I'm gonna check AC Moore on this.
How far does one of those epoxy sticks go? Can you complete the whole job with one stick?

Jinx - I can tell you that the styro-foam should not alter the tank's parameters at all. I would think that the best way to design this thing is so the foam is not subject to exposure to fish nibbling, so should be completely covered with substrate/rocks etc. But as you've probably detected, I have no expertise on this subject, so take it for what it's worth.

[kveeti]

The styrofoam was from a home improvement store (Rona) like your Home Hardware, I guess. And it's the white stuff. There's blue denser stuff which I know nothing about but I don't think blue styrofoam is natural. Yes, in blocks, there are several different sizes, i.e. 4 ft, 8 ft by different widths and thicknesses. There's even really thick blocks in craft stores but they cost a lot more per square inch if you worked it out.

1-1/2 epoxy sticks did my whole wall. But I used a lot more than I had to as I even filled in back spaces/cracks so the backside was smoother. There's a thread somewhere in AC about using the putty epoxy. But RTR posted on it, which might make searching easier if you want to try. He said he just put little round balls here and there and then squished the rocks together (my words, just from what I remember him saying, I don't think he used "squished"). I put actual lines of it between my rocks. I think it works better if the rocks are a little rough.

Edit... Here's a pic to get a better idea of how far the 1-1/2 sticks went. I have a 50 long (4 ft.) Most of my rocks were side-by-side joins, so you can count rocks if you want to:

[RTR]

I have used both the forms of styro mentioned, but I prefer the blueboard. It is stronger, a closed-cell dense foam, so it does not shed "beads" and does the softer, more fragile white styro. Blueboard is a bit more expensive, but the difference is huge in use. The white styro is easily torn even with a gravel vac in my clumsy hands. The blue may dent, but is harder to fragment. It is exactky to avoid pressure points. I have not cemented it down, but that would help if you had long wall runs without any support or bracing. I also use the blueboard (edged taped with plastic tape slose to the tank frame in color, or just black) as the base layer under all my tanks on DIY stands.

Kveeti captured my epoxy putty technique nicely. It is crude, but did the job well. There is some sifting of fines through the wall, but I don't use sand substrates, and even small gravels are held pretty well. As i preferred to use two little fishes putty, if you have a leaky spot that is troublesome, you can still go into the operating tank and push some worked putty into the leaky spot and tamp some gravel in front of it. That stuff is more expensive but fully fish safe (used for mounting coral frags on base rock). I never though of spreading the stuff over the backside of the wall - that would be more work and cost, but with fine substrates would be a big help, good hint.

[reiverix]

Dang it. I wish I'd thought of tiering before I set up my 30g hex. They all look awesome.

[djlen]

Originally Posted by reiverix

Dang it. I wish I'd thought of tiering before I set up my 30g hex. They all look awesome.

All this building talk can really get you interested. huh John?
After about 12 years without a makeover I've been thinking seriously of a complete tear-down of my 40 gal. tank and this subject might just push me over the edge. I hate to disturb my Crypts., but a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.

I'm envisioning a 2 or 3 tier structure with stone and substrate on it that will weigh quite a bit and am wondering why it would be necessary to 'glue it down'. Seems like with all that weight it should stay in place pretty well, right?
An old friend of my named James Hofthiezer, who has some of the most beautiful tanks I've ever seen, has used tiers on both ends of some tanks to give a really interesting 'valley' affect, but I'm not that ambitious. Especially since I have no clue what I'm doing here.

Any more pictures on this subject would be of enormous assistance.

Len