Some aquascaping terracing ideas??

[tprjohn1]

i would first like to thank all of you for any help you might give me. i am a retarded, i mean retired state trooper. i have been keeping fish on or off for about 40 of my 48 years. i have owned my own landscape business too. i would like to think i have one of the nicest looking yards around.

i would like to use some of my own experience and totally revamp my 220 gallon freshwater tank. i have six 96 watt compact flourescent fixtures with i believe are 6700k flourescent tubes. i inject lots of co2 via a high pressure line from my soda machines co2 tank in my basement. i have constructed a homemade diffuser using a 2 liter soda bottle on the return of my magnum 350.

having said all this, let me tell you i have spent tons on plants that were mostly purchased from az aquatic gardens. no more. what i end up with is a tank full of plants growing out of control. i have about 5 inches of flourite on the bottom of my tank. there are probably 20 montezuma swords in there now. what i would like to do now (and it's going to involve removing lots of flourite) is to terrace the snot of my gravel to give it a many tiered terrace look, and then replant.

i'm trying to think of some material to use to make my "walls". i was going to use L shaped pieces of vinyl siding. i was thinking of back filling on the horizontal part of the L and then bring that level up to grade, and then repeat. i figured since vinyl siding was very bendable, i could shape it into any shape i wanted under heat.

today, i had another idea of using wooden "Lincoln logs" to make them. the problem i foresee in using vinyl is that it will leave a very undesirable exposed front wall unless i can attatch some sort of material to the front. any and all ideas would be welcome.

switching gears, in a few weeks, i would like to add alot of tetras as well as those red coral pencilfish. i would also like to add some of those glolight danios. i would also like to breed cardinal tetras or those glolights. is there anywhere to get fish at a great price? i have been looking at having them imported from singapore etc. i am located in massachusetts. thanks again. jp

*edited by |squee| for paragraphing*

[juggler]

Hi, welcome to AQ!

To do the terracing, you are going to empty you tank and start all over again? That's a lot of work. Why not rearrange the plants instead - taller ones at the back and shorter ones in the front.

Next, Cardinal Tetras are difficult to breed. I think I have never heard of anyone successfully doing it in captivity. Would it be easier to buy from USA or import them from South America? The fish cost about SGD$1 over here. Is it worth to ship from Singapore?

BTW - nice to know you can retire at 48!

[spilopterus]

Welcome to this forum! I've tried terracing before in a 3ft and it didn't really work out that nicely. I used an acrylic, bent it and attached corkwood to it. At first, it did seem fine but as time went along, it looked too artificial.

Another thing I overlooked was that terracing would create a much thicker gravel layer. As a result, many of the plants I grew on the terrace itself didn't grow so well as it was much further away from the base fertiliser.

But if you really must terrace, I'd recommed you use a combination of driftwood and rocks put together to hold the sand back to form a rough terrace. That way, it looks more natural and pleasing to the eye.

Lastly, it looks like you want to breed some fishes. Well, plant really densely and have a singe species in it I guess. I'm already planning of having a 4ft tank with driftwoods and java ferns only, but of several varieties of course. Then filling the tank with white cloud mountain minnows. If all goes as expected, I might never need to buy fish. Problem is, I'm tempted to have other fish such as discus and apistos inside as well.