Eggcrate Under Sand ?

[DiverDude]

I've used eggcrate under sand where live rock was located (to relieve and stress-points) in the past and had no issues but for a new tank I'm building, I'm contemplating putting a sheet of eggcrate covering the entire bottom of the tank to make changing aquascapes easier in the future.

I'm looking at about 1 - 1.5" of sand above the eggcrate.

Anyone have an opinion on why this may or may not be a good idea. The obvious concern is that it may impede sand dwellers, sand sifters and the like. Anyone done this and regretted it ?

[daplatapus]

I have 100% of my tanks bottom covered for a year and a half now. I've had a YWG, twin spot blenny, sand sifting star fish, nassaruis snails, etc and no one has seemed to mind.

[Aquattro]

Yup, I did it, dumbest thing I ever did. And now that I want it out, I can't remove it. I read it and thought "hey, I'll do that" for no real reason, and it was just dumb. The front part is exposed, it impedes sand dwellers and it doesn't actually do anything useful. It is not needed to relieve stress from rocks.

[DiverDude]

How deep a sand bed do you have over the eggcrate ?

[Reef Pilot]

We had a good discussion about this early in the year. I ended up going with live rock directly on the bottom, with a shallow layer of sand all around.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=81984

[Dearth]

Depending on water flow you could potentially have egg crate show through as the sand is moved around by currents and critters I have egg crate on the entire bottom of my tank and I would rather have that extra layer of protection and maybe some egg crate showing than a cracked or broken tank. As to critter impediment I don't believe there will be an issue there.

[DiverDude]

It is not needed to relieve stress from rocks.

So do you put the rocks on the bare glass and then add sand or put sand and lay the rock on the sand ?

I figure the latter would remove the need for the eggcrate in the first place but I'm concerned that sand dwellers could undermine the rock structures and cause collapses...

[daplatapus]

How deep a sand bed do you have over the eggcrate ?


Mine's about 1.5"

[Aquattro]

I would rather have that extra layer of protection and maybe some egg crate showing than a cracked or broken tank..

Unless you're tossing rocks around in the tank, it's not going to break. Even if you tossed them, they'd have to hit hard.

[Aquattro]

So do you put the rocks on the bare glass and then add sand or put sand and lay the rock on the sand ?

I figure the latter would remove the need for the eggcrate in the first place but I'm concerned that sand dwellers could undermine the rock structures and cause collapses...

Put it on the glass. This prevents anything from digging under it and toppling your rock scape. I would actually put a bit of sand, add the rock, twist it into the sand a bit so that it's touching glass, then add the rest of the sand.

The discussion linked above, if it's the one I'm thinking of, will give lots of input. But rock won't break glass just by sitting on it.

[DiverDude]

It seems to come down to a few criteria:

-Concern over pressure points on the glass
-Bottom breakage due to falling rock

If you're not particularly concerned with either of those, then there's no reason to put eggcrate at all !

I can't say I'm seriously concerned about pressure points and I'm not concerned at all about falling rock; it's just that in this tank, I've got more depth and can afford to pile more than a few rocks high and thought that perhaps the additional weight may pose a little more risk. I think that I'm not giving glass enough credit for it's strength....

[Borderjumper]

After having the bottom crack on a tank I opted for egg crate. It just made me feel a little safer. I put 3-4 inches of course sandon top and never had any problems with sand blowing around.

I'm dis illusioned with sand tho. I had the deep sand bed go bad in my RSM a month ago and it was a mess tearing the whole tank down and rebuilding it.

I have some days off.. So I'm siphoning the sand out of the bigger tank a small section a night and replacing it with a a single layer of crushed coral. I find I can clean the bottom with the crushed coral by just moving it around with the suction hose. Granted I can't get all the sand under the rocks but I'm getting most of it.