# Best Land/Water Divider?



## herpguy (Apr 18, 2009)

Okay everybody, I am no stranger to setting up planted vivs but I am doing something different. I am setting up a 40 gal breeder with 1/3 land 2/3 water. I plan on making the water section 8" high.
Anyways, I have a few unanswered questions on issues with water/land separator issues. At first I bought a cheap piece of glass cut to size. Then I did some research and found out that 3/32" on glass was not going to cut it.
Then I read some places that said acrylic works good, and I remember using acrylic for a divider I did on a 20L as a kid that worked fine. So I got a piece of Duraplex acrylic (.08" but apparently stronger than regular acrylic?) cut to size.
Anyways, I am now reading that acrylic can have serious issues. I was planning on just using tons of (100%) silicone to make sure all the edges are sealed. However, I am a little apprehensive because I want to do it once and I want to do it right. Should I go ahead and use the acrylic I have, or should I try and special order some 1/4" glass? 

Help would be much appreciated.


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## nschmitz06 (Feb 20, 2011)

I think you've found a good separation medium with your acrylic (as long as its acrylic and not polycarbonate). You can use a heat gun to bend it to the shape you want also at only 1/8". For something that thin I would say you will want something behind it supporting it from the weight of the water, but it should seal up just fine. If you are going to glue anything to it like sand I would use sandpaper to scratch up the surface first.


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## sumer (Dec 14, 2012)

I have personally tried it and it worked okay. But that was a 10G and water was not too much.
Thing to note is that silicon doesn't work very good with acrylic. So in a 40 breeder where you will have a lot more water, it might fail. 

But I have another idea in my mind. What if you basically make a tray or dish of acrylic (base AND sides of acrylic) and just put it in the tank! don't let any of the sides touch the front glass. I have triangle shape in my mind. This way it will be safe and portable. You can remove it in future without messing with the tank. 

You can easily do this with some gel type weldon 16 and custom cut acrylic pieces from your local plastic shop. They would also make it for you if you want.


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## skoomd (Dec 24, 2013)

Personally I think it is best if you made a false bottom and have the entire bottom of the tank full of water. Then you can shape the egg crate to make a pond or whatever, and then use foam/wood/moss to create a more natural looking ledge into the water.


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## mark c (Jun 17, 2010)

If you have the water feature connected to the water in the false bottom, the waste water will leach into the water feature. That sounds no good.

I don't know how well it is going to work, but I formed a pond by spraying pond foam in sort of a wall formation in the corner. It is completely isolated from the rest of the false bottom. It seems to be water-tight. I pressed some aquarium pebbles into it while wet, to give it a more natural look. Just don't press too soon, or the pebbles sink into the pond foam.

A separate acrylic bowl might be okay, but being not permanent it might lift up and float on the water from the false bottom. If you fill it with pebbles, that would keep it down.


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## skoomd (Dec 24, 2013)

People have been doing it for years, it just involves water changes and/or filtration.


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## Lokirathehunter (Oct 16, 2015)

mark c said:


> If you have the water feature connected to the water in the false bottom, the waste water will leach into the water feature. That sounds no good.
> 
> I don't know how well it is going to work, but I formed a pond by spraying pond foam in sort of a wall formation in the corner. It is completely isolated from the rest of the false bottom. It seems to be water-tight. I pressed some aquarium pebbles into it while wet, to give it a more natural look. Just don't press too soon, or the pebbles sink into the pond foam.
> 
> A separate acrylic bowl might be okay, but being not permanent it might lift up and float on the water from the false bottom. If you fill it with pebbles, that would keep it down.




Except dividing the land and water means you have to change the water ANYWAY, AND now you'll have nasty smelly stagnant moisture built up under your dirt and you'll have to tear the tank down.


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

mark c said:


> If you have the water feature connected to the water in the false bottom, the waste water will leach into the water feature. That sounds no good.
> 
> I don't know how well it is going to work, but I formed a pond by spraying pond foam in sort of a wall formation in the corner. It is completely isolated from the rest of the false bottom. It seems to be water-tight. I pressed some aquarium pebbles into it while wet, to give it a more natural look. Just don't press too soon, or the pebbles sink into the pond foam.
> 
> A separate acrylic bowl might be okay, but being not permanent it might lift up and float on the water from the false bottom. If you fill it with pebbles, that would keep it down.


I've done my ponds sharing their water with the false bottom/drainage layer for years. Works fine, and cuts down on how often you have to top off the pond due to evaporation, which means more stable water quality overall. I typically avoid a full water change, except once every year or 2 when a bunch of gunk has been knocked into it by frogs or dead ffs and what not has built up. 

You can add a small pump or air stone, or underwater filter in larger ponds to help with water quality, but after a few months I find the water clears up usually once a nice healthy population of beneficial bacteria has colonized the pond. Plants help too, and if the water does get stagnate/scummy on top throw in some salvia natens or frogbit to hide it. I stay away from duckweed... Once it goes in you never get it out unless you let the tank dry up. 

I've had frogs breed/morph out in ponds like this, and kept small fish alive for years (Hardy fish like betas that can breath air are a good choice).

My preference is for a wood or rock shoreline that sections off a corner as the pond, and rises above the false bottom/drainage layer about an inch or more to help create a substrate barrier so stuff doesn't fall into the pond. 

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/pa...-mosaic-living-drip-wall-pond-method-how.html


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## Rushthezeppelin (Oct 6, 2015)

Another natural option to help keep the water clean is planting a terrestrial plant emergently into the water feature. For example many aquarists use Pothos to help get their nitrates down. It works perfect as it drops nitrates to 20ppm ish and then stops growing till nitrates spike up again. Of course if you are doing a biotope you might have to try some other plants to do this, but I'm sure most other terrestrials that can root basically permanently in water will drop the nitrates a similar amount. Also running your water through a drip wall with plenty of moss and plants on it is another natural way to accomplish this.


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## Veektoor (Oct 14, 2015)

I've literally just done what you're talking about but I made a mistake. I made the eggcrate false bottom really shallow so I had to use a ton of leca to make sure the substrate is above the waterline. Il post a pic later.


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## Centaur333 (Oct 7, 2021)

Centaur333 said:


> oh and how many red eyed tree frogs could i handle in a setup like that males/ females and such. also for the water feature its big enough i can line the plexiglass side with some base rock i have in a bin, and i was thinking in the water feature i could put in it a tropical water lily and maybe let some dwarf sagittaria ( plant) carpet the bottom. was maybe thinking like african cichlids (shell dwellers)
> in the water





herpguy said:


> Okay everybody, I am no stranger to setting up planted vivs but I am doing something different. I am setting up a 40 gal breeder with 1/3 land 2/3 water. I plan on making the water section 8" high.
> Anyways, I have a few unanswered questions on issues with water/land separator issues. At first I bought a cheap piece of glass cut to size. Then I did some research and found out that 3/32" on glass was not going to cut it.
> Then I read some places that said acrylic works good, and I remember using acrylic for a divider I did on a 20L as a kid that worked fine. So I got a piece of Duraplex acrylic (.08" but apparently stronger than regular acrylic?) cut to size.
> Anyways, I am now reading that acrylic can have serious issues. I was planning on just using tons of (100%) silicone to make sure all the edges are sealed. However, I am a little apprehensive because I want to do it once and I want to do it right. Should I go ahead and use the acrylic I have, or should I try and special order some 1/4" glass?
> ...


Hey just found out flex seal / flex shot are safe for animals and plants, that would be a much stronger bond then silicon or spray foam


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