Has anyone made a second floor in their tanks?

3619 Views 9 Replies 8 Participants Last post by F8LBITEva, Apr 19, 2008

Ravenatnm

Discussion Starter · Apr 18, 2008

I have been thinking about this for a while. Has anyone used acrylic to make a sort of second bottom with sand on it above the normal bottom of their tanks? I'm thinking you could put a 9" wide piece about 1/2 way up the back of your tank and make it span the length of the tank any essentially gain 50% floor space in a 90 gallon tank.

Here is my really simple side-view of the idea. What do you think?

TOP
______________
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|_____| this is the shelf
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|_____________| Side is here
Bottom is here

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DeViANtX

· #2 · Apr 18, 2008

never thought about that, but it sounds like a good idea. If you able to ensure that it will stay there go for it and make sure you post pics when its done. I would be very interested in seeing the results

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f u z z

· #3 · Apr 18, 2008

I have seen this done before in a terrarium, but never in a fish tank. It sounds like it would be an awesome idea. Go for it! Just remember to put some kind of support if you plan on putting heavy items on the second shelf.

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Ravenatnm

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 18, 2008

Do you think that I should use real glass rather than acrylic for the shelf? The acrylic would be much easier for me to work with. I thought that I'd need a small lip so that the sand stays on the second story. I would also need a hole so that the filter inlet and USJ pipes can poke through to the bottom. This would be an interesting USJ setup with a network of jet pipes running jets on the top and bottom story. I don't have my tank yet, I was thinking 75, but the height of a 90 would allow this project to work out better. It would allow for 12" of head-room between each level. Do you think that lighting would be problematic or does it bounce around enough to cover both levels?

I assume that I'd need at least two support braces in the middle section to keep the "front" of the 2nd floor from falling down. I guess it might be hard to clean below the second floor, but the jets should keep things stirred up.

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wmayes

· #5 · Apr 18, 2008

I think it could looks nice if scaped to hide it. I'd put only two brackets underneath - each about an eighth of the way in from the ends of the aquarium.

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fishyfishyfishy

· #6 · Apr 18, 2008

I thought about doing something like that in my 450g to gain some height and aid in filtration. What I ended up doing was making a raised floor using eggcrate. Just about my entire rock structure is raised off the bottom. See my TANKS for more info.

It's not a visual second floor like you're considering but maybe it'll help u a bit.

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herb

· #7 · Apr 18, 2008

Once upon a time i decided to make a shellie condo, i used plastic shelving units and painted them black, then put sand all over them, the shellies took up the lower shelves first, then as the colony grey they took over the second floor too. attached is a crude photo of the setup.
this is a 75 gallon tank, and these are multi's.

herb

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bentcountershaft

· #8 · Apr 18, 2008

I've seen a reef tank somewhat like that. They didn't put any substrate on the shelf because it was made of egg crate but they stacked it full of corals to set up and behind the larger pieces in the front. It looked really good the way they did it, you didn't see the frame at all, but that may be because it had been set up for several years and everything was covered with hard coraline.

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Ravenatnm

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 18, 2008

herb said:
Once upon a time i decided to make a shellie condo, i used plastic shelving units and painted them black, then put sand all over them, the shellies took up the lower shelves first, then as the colony grey they took over the second floor too. attached is a crude photo of the setup.
this is a 75 gallon tank, and these are multi's.

herb

I guess that answers my question. No light shines below the shelf.

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F8LBITEva

· #10 · Apr 19, 2008

that double shellie tank looks awesome!

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