Silicone sand to bottom glass

[Bill]

Hey everybody,

Has anyone ever tried to silicone a thin layer of sugar sand to the bottom glass to prevent it from blowing around (SPS tank)? Would that much silicone leach anything into the water?

Any thoughts?

[NateL]

I believe Chin Lee used an epoxy to do just what your talking about.

[Reefer Rob]

You may as well just go bare bottom. If you glue sand to the bottom it will just get covered with Coraline and will look the same anyway.

[Chin_Lee]

I believe Chin Lee used an epoxy to do just what your talking about.
I did it with 2part epoxy and i wouldn't do it again. I'll leave it at that until i have more time to write more about it

[Bill]

thanks for the replies. I have never been able to grow enough coraline to cover the bottom. I was also hoping that the sand would reflect some light to the undersides of the sps. Chin Lee, thanks for responding; I would like to hear more about your experiences with epoxy and your opinion on using silicone instead.

[Ruth]

I had thought about doing that at one time but when I really started to think about it I changed my mind.
If you think about it the sand you silicone on will only be nice and white for a very short while then it is either going to:

- get covered in coraline
- be a good place for crude to stick to as it settles to the bottom of the tank
- be a great foothold for hair and other algea to get a good grip on
- be harder to scrape crap off of than a flat smooth surface

I don't think you will be able to create the austetics you are going for this way so IMO you should either go with a sand bed (deep or shallow) or bare bottom.

[Bill]

Good point Ruth, I was also concerned about the algae issues as the tank matures.

[Doug]

Bill, I used silicone & 2mm sizes aragonite on a sheet of plexi-glass that fit into my 90g cube. I still have pics if your interested by the way. It looked good at first but I would also not do it again.

Even the small layer of gravel trapped detritus, but most of all, made it harder to siphon clean. I prefer just bare glass now or starboard of some type. I also have some pics of a seasoned bare bottomed tank with great looking coralline growing on it. It seems to be the first place its growing in my new 45 cube also.