Juwel Terrace Rocks?

[Truck]

Ive ben looking at creating terraces in my new tank, as IMO they can look very stunning.

ive been looking at the juwel rock terraces made out of plastic. there 35cm long and 15cm tall and about 2.5cm thick.

dont get me wrong these things look good! but £10! i dont want to be paying £30 for a few terraces!

can any of you think of a cheaper alternative, as im doing my first "real" planted scape on my new tank.

 

[OohFeeshy]

From Google images, they just look like curvy bits of plastic what look like rocks? Could either take a look at a few polystyrene background threads (where you get your sheet and literally carve out the bits), or just silicone together a load of rocks. You could even try making them out of concrete- there was a thread in the SW section about making your own live rock out of concrete in the shape you wanted. Although the downside being curing takes a very long time.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi truckasauras123

I'll move your thread to the DIY section. You might get more good suggestions there.

 

[flash22]

There GRP (glass reinforced plastic) only really suit the larger tanks (Rio 260 upwards) due to their scale

The major down fall i found is there is no water flow behind the terracing through the back fill substrate. The water just stagnates and bad bacteria build up (i had the back fill about 3-4" deep) I ended up losing a lot of stock due to this

Needless to say the got removed from my Rio 300 and a mass clean out ensued

 

[Truck]

i might just create a terrace out of slate or build up my substrate

 

[pammy172]

There GRP (glass reinforced plastic) only really suit the larger tanks (Rio 260 upwards) due to their scale

The major down fall i found is there is no water flow behind the terracing through the back fill substrate. The water just stagnates and bad bacteria build up (i had the back fill about 3-4" deep) I ended up losing a lot of stock due to this

Needless to say the got removed from my Rio 300 and a mass clean out ensued

Glad I've seen this!! We were thinking of putting a terrace in our Juwel Vision 260 using the Juwel terrace pieces. Was thinking of connecting an A then B then another A backfilling with pea gravel with sand in front. I hadn't thought about the water flow and the problems it might cause. Should I be worrying and rethinking my plans?

Athought that springs to mind is to layer the terrace with larger stones then some plastic gauze and putting the gravel on top to allow the water to flow through but hold the gravel back. This would mean raising the terrace a little perhaps sitting it on some rolled up plastic gauze. Hopefully the sand wouldn't stray through. Or os this going to get silly?