How to make a tank with a sloping bottom??

[David R]

I modified an old 3' tank to make a settling chamber before the sump on my 210g tank, as a test-run to see how well it worked before building one for the 370g, and its working well. Here is the plan for the one for the 370g;

The biggest downfall with the converted 3' is the flat bottom means the muck settles over a larger area and takes longer to siphon, so I thought if I could make an angled bottom it would be more likely to accumulate down one end, making it easier to clean. I'm not quite sure how to do this, I'll discus it with the tank maker this week and see what he thinks, I'm just interested to see if the clever people here can come up with some cunning ideas. I'll post some pics of the set up on the 210g tomorrow.

 

[Valous]

well I am not 100% sure if this would work. But what if you got a piece of glass that is the measurements of the inside of the tank. then a couple small pieces to go underneath like a raised floor idea. just have the pieces underneath decrease in size. Or have 2 pieces on the long side that are identical triangles and one that is as deep for the front side of the slope. I hope that makes sense.

 

[nes999]

for my tank i did the exact same thing i used a ugf and 2 small pieces of pvc. my loaches love to hide under it also

 

[David R]

for my tank i did the exact same thing i used a ugf and 2 small pieces of pvc. my loaches love to hide under it also

This needs to be water-tight as I don't want waste accumulating under it.

Valous I was thinking of cutting triangular glass supports for it but I wasn't sure how that would work distributing the weight onto the bottom pane of glass.

Here is a pic of the settling chamber running on the 210g, since then I have modified it to have three bulkheads on the right hand end as one wasn't keeping up with the flow of the pump.

 

[broken]

I always thought about doing this on a tank for easy cleaning but was scared to.