Alternative to a custom drop-off aquarium idea?

[saejogi]

I have an idea. I've always wanted a drop off aquarium but getting them pre made these days aren't too common unless its custom. I love the idea of playing around with height in an aquascape. There's an idea in my head that I would like fleshed out. I was thinking about using an acrylic box and placing it inside a say standard 40 gallon breed tank. The acrylic box will be filled with sand and will behave like a shelf as a drop off tank would have. The sand inside the box would also act as a deep sand bed. Is this viable or would there be new problems vs just getting a drop off aquarium? I figured it would use a lot of sand to create that height.

Another idea would be to create a shelf using a safer material like biobricks and carving the top layer into a bowl to fill with sand.

Below is my attempt at a visual with paint lol.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I don't personally see any issues with your plan there, but I'm definitely not an expert, so hopefully someone will chime in if they notice something.

 

[vlangel]

I believe what you want to do can work. My tank has 3 levels, a 1 inch sand bed on the left side, a 6+ inch sand bed on the right and an even deeper sanded where the anemones are since they are on a structure that has a retaining wall of live rock around it and it rests on the deep sand bed.