Well it's been a long time coming, to long really but it's time to start this journal before it's too late. As I start this the tank is well on the way to being set up, filled with substrate and sand etc waiting for the plants to be delivered. All looking good but lets start at the beginning and see how we got this far:
It was back in January we decided at we needed a bigger thank to house our rapidly growing Discus so after some measuring and thought about where and how we could actually fit one into our smallish house we came up with a place that would hold a 68" long tank. It so happens that Aquariums Ltd make a tank just that size, so with no further ado I called them up and ordered a 68 x 30 x 24 tank on a cabinet and a 48 x 18 x 18 sump.
Discus, especially ours are incredibly messy eaters spreading their beefheart around like confetti. As Discus need immaculate water this needs cleaning up before it starts rotting or whatever it does, one of the reasons bare bottom tanks are very popular amongst Discus keepers. With this in mind we decided that we would keep a large area clear of plants which would be easy to clean and restrict the planting to the back of the tank. We thought also at this time that maintenance of such a deep tank would be difficult (at this point we decided this would have to be a low tech tank but more of that later)so we decided we would also try and form a barrier between the two sections which would help keep food in the clear area and help prevent plants spreading into the clear area. After searching through countless planted tank pictures for inspiration the only things suitable either looked like dry stone walling or something from a municipal garden. By chance I saw a thread on another forum where somebody had made a rockscape out of lava rock and expanding polyurethane foam, bizzare but it worked. This in mind we came up with the idea of fabricating a sand bank running the length of the tank inter spaced with stones.
This next bit looks horrendous but hang on in there the finished thing looks not that bad! So we started with a piece of MDF the size of the tank and a stack of rocks we selected from the beach. After a couple of hours mucking about we settled on a layout that we hoped would fit the bill, with this in mind we ordered some redmoor root from aqua essentials. A couple of days later it arrived and we double checked our arrangement with the wood and it confirmed our choice. I pencilled in the plan of the sandbank onto the MDF then removed the rocks. The MDF was coated in a layer of wax as a releasing agent for the polyurethane foam. A layer of the afore mentioned foam was laid down along the marked outline and allowed to harden over night. It was trimmed down in the areas where the stones would fit to a height of 1.5 inches or so, this would then be covered by sand in the front. Each stone was covered in cling film to allow removal and placed in position. Finally more foam was squirted around and left to harden overnight. The excess was trimmed away with a sharp knife to look something like what I wanted and the stones removed before a final sanding to shape. To finish this to make it actually look like sand it was coated in white tinted epoxy resin and white gravel sprinkled on carefully, actually this took a couple of coats to look right. Sadly I see to have lost the photographs of this part of the construction sorry. Anyway the finished article looked, well a monstrosity but we had to remember that only a small part of it would actually be seen.
Trial layout with wood
Final layout with wood
First coat of polyurethane
Stones fitted
Last polyurethane shot
These are the guys whose home this will be
It was back in January we decided at we needed a bigger thank to house our rapidly growing Discus so after some measuring and thought about where and how we could actually fit one into our smallish house we came up with a place that would hold a 68" long tank. It so happens that Aquariums Ltd make a tank just that size, so with no further ado I called them up and ordered a 68 x 30 x 24 tank on a cabinet and a 48 x 18 x 18 sump.
Discus, especially ours are incredibly messy eaters spreading their beefheart around like confetti. As Discus need immaculate water this needs cleaning up before it starts rotting or whatever it does, one of the reasons bare bottom tanks are very popular amongst Discus keepers. With this in mind we decided that we would keep a large area clear of plants which would be easy to clean and restrict the planting to the back of the tank. We thought also at this time that maintenance of such a deep tank would be difficult (at this point we decided this would have to be a low tech tank but more of that later)so we decided we would also try and form a barrier between the two sections which would help keep food in the clear area and help prevent plants spreading into the clear area. After searching through countless planted tank pictures for inspiration the only things suitable either looked like dry stone walling or something from a municipal garden. By chance I saw a thread on another forum where somebody had made a rockscape out of lava rock and expanding polyurethane foam, bizzare but it worked. This in mind we came up with the idea of fabricating a sand bank running the length of the tank inter spaced with stones.
This next bit looks horrendous but hang on in there the finished thing looks not that bad! So we started with a piece of MDF the size of the tank and a stack of rocks we selected from the beach. After a couple of hours mucking about we settled on a layout that we hoped would fit the bill, with this in mind we ordered some redmoor root from aqua essentials. A couple of days later it arrived and we double checked our arrangement with the wood and it confirmed our choice. I pencilled in the plan of the sandbank onto the MDF then removed the rocks. The MDF was coated in a layer of wax as a releasing agent for the polyurethane foam. A layer of the afore mentioned foam was laid down along the marked outline and allowed to harden over night. It was trimmed down in the areas where the stones would fit to a height of 1.5 inches or so, this would then be covered by sand in the front. Each stone was covered in cling film to allow removal and placed in position. Finally more foam was squirted around and left to harden overnight. The excess was trimmed away with a sharp knife to look something like what I wanted and the stones removed before a final sanding to shape. To finish this to make it actually look like sand it was coated in white tinted epoxy resin and white gravel sprinkled on carefully, actually this took a couple of coats to look right. Sadly I see to have lost the photographs of this part of the construction sorry. Anyway the finished article looked, well a monstrosity but we had to remember that only a small part of it would actually be seen.
Trial layout with wood
Final layout with wood
First coat of polyurethane
Stones fitted
Last polyurethane shot
These are the guys whose home this will be
I tell you my ribs are killing me after that, if I need to do any maintenance at the bottom of this when it's full I WILL need a mask and snorkel as my head must go into the tank to reach the bottom back 
