Landscaping advice needed
 

Due to a sudden colapse in the market.... I mean my rock work, I am going to re-landscape my tank.

My plan is to use eggcrate to make the structure and caves,etc. What I need advice on is what would you use to lift the individual pieces? I will have one piece on the bottom covering most of the tank(about 3-5 inches away from the glass except on the back. I will then do little stands of egg crate to create ledges and caves. Then I'll cover them with rock. Nothing to fancy just want some better flow and some good hidey holes. Also I will leave some egg crate piece exposed on the top areas for frags so my urchin doesn't carry them off to never never land again.

Does this sound like a good plan?
I'd like to keep the bottom "plate" off the bare bottom by about 1/2 inch or so.
I don't plan on zip tying the rock work on.
What would everyone use for the "legs"and how would you attach them?

TIA

Glenn

id try pvc pipe for legs.

I have my live rock resting on some large diameter black pvc, the kind used for house plumbing drains. Cut a chunk out and a hole or two to allow burrowing critters the opportunity to move stuff around inside the 3/4 circle. The stuff floats though, as I found out and when I set up my next tank I'll take a little more time and perhaps silicone the pieces to the bottom.

Some of them have become exposed a little through the sand due to my Maroon Clown and Blue Devil Damsel rearranging the substrate, but I don't mind, eventually coralline grows on them and they blend in to the scene.

I thought about that, but I'm thinking that would lift it up too much. The excess "tabs" from the eggcrate seem to lift it up about 3/8". Sort of like this.
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when I had a DSB I made boxes about 4" high for the LR to sit on so it wouldn't be buried in the sand. Not sure how well eggcrating would work for a skeleton. I'm just stacked my rock and still have lots of open areas, if I was worried about it collapsing think I'd try pinning it with acrylic or fibreglass rods.

Sorry, I guess I didn't explain well enough. The pipe is cut to the desired/required length and stood on end. That way you can raise the rock/eggcrate to the height of your choice. I used fairly large diameter stuff, 3 inch and my other error is that it's ABS not PVC. My sandbed is close to 4 inches in some spots, I cut the ABS to about 3 inches and stood the pieces on end, so height is 3 inches.

Bare bottom tank.
And there is only about 65 lbs of rock covering a 17 X 19 area.

I will post initial pics soon.

Bare bottom, so the eggcrate will be visible, or cut to be hidden by the rock on it?
Here's a photo of 2 inch ABS cut in half and approx 1/2 inch thick. As mentioned it floats so a dab of silicone or 4 hands are required to keep it in place under water until some weight is on it. I did not cut my pieces in half but just took a small section out to allow circulation. With such small pieces there's no room to add holes for circulation so cutting in half makes more sense. Doesn't have to be ABS pipe, could do the same with PVC so it would be similar in colour to the eggcrate.

http://hlj1yw.blu.livefilestore.com/...T/P1010733.jpg

http://www.mytechno-weenie.com/sideshot.jpg

http://www.mytechno-weenie.com/lifters.jpg

Just a couple of snaps to show my idea better.

The plan right now is to leave alot of the flat spots with no rock on them so that I can put frags on them. There will be more of the platforms. Am I making any sense??????????

:)

Eggs crate is flimsy a gets brittle and breaks easily after awhile. I would go with pvc and milk crates. After all you are putting rocks on it.