I'm setting up another tank and wanted a way to separate the plant substrate from the sand i want to use at the front (for my cories) So i decided to build a wall, quite pleased how it turned out actually

All that was used was foam, silicon and black quartz sand.

Full wall


'rock'


Close up

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

very neat!

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My 30 gallon planted freshwater - CONSTANTLY CHANGING

Wait that's foam?

Oh I reallly like that!!! what a cool way to separate plants and sand!!

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Tank: 29g:guppies, balloon mollies, swordtail, 2 mollies
Hex: opaline gourami
10g 1F. betta

Thanx guys

Yep its foam (below is the rough draft before final tweaking)

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

this is very cool, can you expand on your process?

what type of foam exactly? It looks like the stuff that come on appliance boxes and such. ( is this safe in a tank?)
How did you shape it, i think heat would be a good tool.

How did you seal it, how did you apply the sand?

Yes its packing foam, and perfectly safe for tanks
To shape it i used both a knife and heat.
Doesnt need to be sealed, as all products used are fish safe
To coat in sand - Spread silicon (like icing a cake), sprinkle sand over and lightly press into silicon until all of viewed area is covered.

Very simple

I'm now in the waiting stage, the wall has been silconed into the tank, now a 72hour wait while the silicon cures, then onto the aquascaping

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Cant wait to see it all together!

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http://2white2nerdy.com

Thats sooo neat. there's no way to do something like this to an established tank huh? LOL Would like to do something like that to my tank, but its already set up and full of water and fishies. Maybe doing something similar but have some sort of weights inside the foam..... *thinking*

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Tank: 29g:guppies, balloon mollies, swordtail, 2 mollies
Hex: opaline gourami
10g 1F. betta

In an established tank would be a problem *L* The foam is extremely bouyant!. Not sure how it would go weighing it down to be honest.

What will be going into this is all the stuff from another tank, decor, filter, heater, plants, fish etc. The canister is not established, so i will need the old filter until the new picks up the slack.

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Nicely done.

Looks good.Most people who use foam usually coat it in quickrete for the weight,but then it had to be sealed,and then soaked until it stops changing the PH.I like your way much better.Possibly to weigh it down,(on your next project)Is fishing weights.Looks like your styro is two pieces thick.If so then sandwich the weights in between the pieces?

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

I am doing a concrete background one also, having trouble getting my hands on the hydrocrete componant.

I wanted something quicker though *L* I'm gonna play with weights with the next few. With lead it will need to be sealed, i'm not keen on any lead being possibly released into my water (i dont even use the plant weights). The sinkers would need to be quite large though, honestly the foam is like a cork *LOL* Anyway will have a play with the for sure. I'm looking at my cichlid tank with 50-60kg (approx) of rock in it, i would love to be able to replace with foam rock that i can shape any way i want. Far less stress on the tank base, and no damage if they should happen to fall.

For this tank though, i wanted it siliconed to the base to stop substrate transfer under it.

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Why don't you just use stones as weights?

More weight per size in lead sinkers, and they come in precise sizes, makes it easier to work out how much weight is needed to hold the foam down

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Update:

Ok wall stayed where it was supposed to. So 1 decent line of silicon the length of the wall will hold it down.

Ive started putting the substrate into the plant section, miscalculated how much i would need though, grrrrrrrrrr, i'll need to drop into the lfs and pick up more gravel!

Stay tuned, i'll try to grab pics as i'm 'scaping

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Finally picked up the bag of gravel i needed (approx 20kg of gravel/laterite/JBL mix behind the wall) Substrate is now all in

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Soooooo its done, well pretty much, needs a few more plants, but this is all i have at the moment.

A pic of wood and some plants being placed


Now filled, lights running. Still gotta fix up the canister, then plug it all in


I must say i'm rather proud of how it turned out

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

Cleared water. Neons and cories in residence

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1x350L Goldfish, 1x 286L Planted, 1x190L Cherry shrimp, 1x140L Feeders, 1x130L Planted, 1x119L Peppermint BN breeding colony

wow, that looks amazing!

great job!


you've giving me good ideas to make use of the 10 gallon collecting dust on my shelf I want to turn it into a little tank to just put plants in and house my guppy fry when the adults in my 30 gallon spawn...

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My 30 gallon planted freshwater - CONSTANTLY CHANGING