eggcrate under sand bed?

[rudyretama]

so ive got a new 150, just finished building the stand, staining it and putting baffels in the sump, and now im wondering if i should put eggcrate under my sandbed... ive heard of others doing it, but i wont be having a DSB... what do you think would be the best option... eggcrate under the sand or just sand?

[b2d2t]

Both of my tanks are just sand, ive heard bad things about egg crate

[rudyretama]

like?? the only things ive heard are that the sand sifters would not be able to get all the way to the bottom

[Stickboy97]

I have a very shallow sand bed in my FOWLR tank and I put the egg crate in. I did so because my first tank cracked and leaked all over my floor due to a falling rock.

[fishchef]

Its something I've done in my last two reef tanks. My current 125 has crushed coral as a substrate with eggcrate covered by an inch or so of the Argonite. I like it because it keeps the live rock stable and protects the glass bottom.. There's plenty of depth for my wrasses to dig in at night, too.

[rudyretama]

thanks for the input guys ..but thats exactly my main fear, an unstable aquascape collapsesand a rock falls and the bottom pane cracks...

[HowieB]

I just started a 120 and covered the bottom with egg crate. Also used small pieces of egg crate, about 3" x 3" under some of the rock to stabilize it and raise it up a little.

[rudyretama]

alright, ithink ill be going with the eggcrate then, thankyou for all the advice

[rudyretama]

i move quick,.. i know :frog:
haaa sorry for the blurry cellphone pic

[Michael7979]

I made some little 'stands' out of scrap acrylic and some extra acrylic rod.
Take a piece of scrap acrylic drill several holes to match the size of the rod you are using. Then insert the rod into the holes.

I have about a 2" SB so I made the rods about 2.5" in length.

Lay them in the tank, (like a table upside down with the legs pointing up), put the sand over them and then stack your rocks onto them. This allows smaller fish to get under the edges of the rock without digging away the support.

Here is a picture to show you, as you can see there is actually water passing under this rock.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/michael7979/10-13-08006.jpg

[rudyretama]

hmmmm.... thankyou for the advice... im liking itt! i think imm haveto try this with my FOWLR

[d0ughb0y]

with sand shifters, you want to have egg crate, without them, your rocks may become unstable. you can cut the egg crate so it is present only below live rocks

[rudyretama]

yeah im going to do that, but i need to get my dry rock first so that i can figure out my aquascape

[Anthrax15]

An alternative to eggcrate is acrylic sheets. Maybe 2/3 inch thick. It will do the same thing as eggcrate does without the thickness of it. I have it under a 1 1/2'' SB. Works great. My mantis has hit really hard at the bottow without any effect to my tank, itself.

[RobbyVonAwesome]

Anthrax15/Jack Nicholson,

If you're looking to get away with something thinner than eggcrate, 2/3" acrylic is not the solution; if memory serves me right eggcrate is 1/2". Maybe I'm wrong.

Either way, the acrylic might not be a bad idea. I would be worried about sand blowing around and exposing bits of the eggcrate, especially if it's an SPS tank with high flow. With the acrylic, even if it blew around, it wouldn't matter, and it probably would expose it anyway.