Raise The Roof....

One way to create a bank is to use a retaining wall or the raised side will gradually slide down till it is all flat. There used to be a member on here who did something along those lines. I can't find her thread so it must have been on the old forum (which was lost when the site had to change hosts in a hurry).
What she did was to find a bendy plastic strip which blended in with her substrate and silicone it to the bottom of the tank. Then fill one side to a higher level than the other.
I do realise this won't make the substrate resemble a nice curved hill, more like a terrace. But it is one way of doing it.

When I was planning my aquarium I came upon this inspirational article.

http://fish-etc.com/aquascaping-main/how-to-hardscape-your-aquarium

The relevant section is posted below:

• Have small pieces of thin flat slate ready, or cut plastic or acrylic squares and rectangles. You will not use these straight away, but you will use them to help you shore up, if you want different levels, and prevent substrate from slipping down once you work in your aquarium for real. The idea is demonstrated in the image below.

I fear that over time the substrate will slide forward off of those bottles.

I'd imagine polystyrene wouldn't be suitable simply because of how bouyant it is.


I just had the following idea for a cheap material to use:

How about buying a couple of cheap plastic sandwich boxes or food storage tubs for a quid each from the supermarket, or poundshop, and taking a junior hacksaw to them.

Then you could end up with right-angled pieces where substrate would weight down the horizontal and the vertical will be your wall for keeping the substrate from sliding.
Hope I've explained that adequately.

I made a plastic fence (using a brown mushroom container) using my craft cutting machine, sewing them together in a length and then attaching a mesh the other side to hold the stones. The fence was then placed in the tank with stones anchoring occasionally along it's length. The other side of the fence had sand



I was able to "pile" up the gravel a bit but I'm not sure it would go high enough for you.  If I can find a picture I'll try and post it.

If you still want to use bottles what about using marine glue to attach a row of the stones you will be using.  Let it dry and it would then form a non slip barrier. Once the stones are the other side of it they should blend in with the glued ones.
You could use different sized bottles for the different effects.

I did also at one stage use different size food boxes because it stops the gravel from slipping completely forward

Don't forget you can use cyanoacrylate superglue safely in a fish tank. Just make sure it has set before immersing it. Silicone doesn't stick well to plastic.

Managed to have a bit of a play this evening.
The bottles I've used are 1.5L, I think it would be to steep, for my use anyway, I may try 1L bottles.
The tubs on the right are looking like a better plan. I'm thinking of having a base level of 3*3 and 2*2 top level.
What do you lot think?
Apologies for the poor quality.

I scrapped this idea as it was becoming a big head ache very quickly lol
I have finished the tank now, all I did to create a hill was to use compost (John Innes #3) and a 5mm holed garden net to hold it in place.
I left about an inch gap free from compost towards the front face of the tank. Purely for the sole purpose of allowing the gravel to hold the net in place.