Anyone ever seen/done this before?

[shallowreef]

Hey everybody,

I am planning on getting a brownbanded bamboo shark in the next couple of weeks and i would like to give him lots of room on the bottom to swim around. So a friend of mine at work suggested making a shelf that hangs in the tank that was made out of black acrylic. By doing this i can get some of my rocks up off of the sand make a ledge for him to hide under. Plus not to mention all of the available swimming room it will give my fish and my shark. I will try and attach some pics/drawing of what i'm looking to do, but have any of you ever heard of doing this? How expensive is black Acrylic?

Thanks a lot,

Nick

 

[Krish]

I've never seen that done, but sounds like a pretty decent idea. My only concern would be how sturdy that will be just hanging on the tank. Will it be able to hold still against the flow or fish bumping into it without all the rocks falling over etc. You may have to put some sort of support behind it in the tank to prevent it from rocking like in the sketch below. I'd even possibly consider siliconing the piece in place so that it doesn't move. I love the Idea though with the ledge...It will make it look really natural in there.

 

[shallowreef]

Thats a good idea Krish!

Thanks!

Do you know how much more black acrylic costs than clear?

 

[Krish]

Naw...couldn't say. Especially you wouldn't want a Bahamian price I'm not sure how much weight the joint will support though just being glued together because when you think of a tank, it is supported from the bottom by a stand and this thing will be suspended without any support underneath. I guess someone like Tom (BigT) would have a good idea on how much weight it would be able to support

 

[shallowreef]

Well i wouldn't glue instead i would like to heat it and bend it verses glueing it.

 

[Krish]

Ahh...Cool. What thickness are you thinking for the plastic?

 

[mungus]

Nick this is where Spazz gets all his acrylic. They have some really good prices. Check em out.

http://freckleface.com/

Brian

 

[Krish]

Here's another thought I'll just toss out. Depending on how your rockwork is setup, you could probably use some fishing line and support the weight of the rocks with it if it is done in a way where you won't see it hidden behind your rocks. You could possible tie up the fishing line first and then aquascape around it afterwards to hide it. Just a thought...I figured I'd toss out as many ideas that came to me

 

[mungus]

Krish has a good point. With all stress from the weight being on the top of the tank you may want to add a few supports from the bottom of the tank up to the help support the shelf. Just a thought.

Brian

 

[shallowreef]

Well if the acrylic is thick enough i figured it would hold just fine. Its going to be holding around 40lbs of live rock. I was going to do more but thats should be enough. See if you look at my tank the small rock pile on the right is the one that i want to put on this shelf. I have a few large pieces of shelf rock That would lay on the bottom of the shelf and then i would add the rest of the rock on top of it. I would still keep some rock over there on the other side though. I just want to really open it up on the bottom.

 

[shallowreef]

Nick this is where Spazz gets all his acrylic. They have some really good prices. Check em out.

http://freckleface.com/

Brian

Well i checked out that site and i saw a sheet of acrylic 3/4" thick with the dimensions being 24x48 and that was 114.95 but it didn't say if it can be bought in black or not?

Thank you though brian for the site. At least now i have a sorta ballpark figure of what it is going to be around.

 

[VegasMike]

I would rather see you buy a large piece of slab rock ( I think reefermadness can get it) and see you elevate it off the bottom with either some PVC couplings or a few pieces of smaller liverock. Just a thought.

Mike

 

[mcvicker]

I would use a slab of acrylic with legs at the corner and possibly middle. Same affect, but no stress on the tank wall and no additional back acrylic piece (it would make cleaning difficult

 

[mattseattle]

I'd do something similiar to what I've done. I placed small acrylic legs into the bottom of my rock to elevate them off the bottom. In your case you could just use larger legs. I think your idea has way too many issues to overcome even for 40 lbs of rock.

 

[shallowreef]

I understand and apreciate all of your guys other ideas but i didn't really want anything under the rocks and i wanted to suspend like 4-5" off of the bottom. I do agree with you guys about the legs and all being a better solution but its not what i'm looking for. That will be last resort if i can't get this to work.

All though if i were to do the live rock as legs idea it wouldn't look all that noticable. See i want to go from the over flow box on the right to about half way or maybe even all the way to the other overflow box. I have read alot about the sharks and i want to give it the perfect surroundings for it to grow in. One of them being ledges and caves for them to hide in or lay out on.