# Sloping Substrate?



## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

I have seen lots of paludariums where the substrate is sloped up and out of the water. But I havn't seen anyone do this sort of slope in an aquarium.

Is this possible to do? How would you go about building it up?

I tried with just a regular sand substrate and it isn't too effective.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about:


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## 748johnd (Jun 30, 2007)

I have never had any luck sloping the substrate. Eventually it always ended up level. I tried it with sand and various sizes of gravel and it just never stayed sloped for me. Now I just make the substrate level when I set up a tank.


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## tokyo (Jan 19, 2010)

Yeah, I've tried multiple times with no success. But these guys making paludariums don't seem to have any trouble. There must be a secret to doing it that I am not seeing.

Maybe something like eco-soil could be used for the structural base, and sand or gravel could be layered ontop. I feel like eco-soil would be more likely to stay put and not level out the way sand does.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

I'm doing some work maybe/kinda along the same question. I'm wanting to place some plants higher in the tank so that the lighting is better. Still wanting the plants to be in the "bottom" means I had to raise the bottom. In my water in my tank I can throw most anything in and it doesn't effect the PH. Too much buffer in my water. I can get away with adding quite a lot of cement without blowing my PH. May not work for other water but if it would you could make a series of short slopes and short level spaces that would keep the sand from working it's way downhill. The sand on the level spots helps support the sand on the short slopes so that the whole stays pretty much where you put it?

I'm using a mix I borrowed from making hypertufa pots and modified it for the tank use. Equal parts sand, cement, and perlite makes a good strong mix which is not quite as heavy to handle as regular cement. It will raise the PH in soft water for sure though.


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## jordan_101 (Mar 21, 2010)

Use larger rock and stack them sturdy then pour the sand over top and when it works its way into the crevases it should help stop the sand from leveling out


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