Egg crate under sand

Is it a good idea to put egg crate under sand?

 

I have egg crate in my fresh and salt water tanks it save me from having the rock work fall over. Especially with borrowing fish and inverts.

 

A lot of fish will like to burrow so it would be good to let them be able to do that and not put egg crate everywhere. You could put it under the rocks so they don't cave in, but that's more easily solved by just putting the rocks in before the sand.

 

another idea is putting small pieces of pvc piping around the corners so the eggcrate isnt just laying on the bottom of the glass.. that way things can still move around within the sandbed

 

I put egg crate in my sand bed to hold frags. I wouldn't cover the entire tank though

 

I wouldn't put egg crate under the sand bed, as flaring said, just put the rock on the bottom and then sand. I think it would easy for burrowing critters to get stuck in egg crate If you want to raise some things above the sand, you can use round pieces of pipe (short of course) - there's a name for it but I'm blocking on it and lay that on the bottom and then put rock in that.....

 

when i set up my first reef tank I put egg crate under the sand because I thought it would help disperse the weight of the rock. On my second tank, I chose not to use egg crate because I didnt like the idea of stagnant sand in between each square. the bottom glass is plenty strong enough to support rock. I have even dropped rocks on the bottom glass without water in the tank and it didnt even scratch. Its the side glass that we have to worry about rocks falling into.

 

I always agreed with Blue Falcon, until this weekend. My 120 gallon wide bottom pane failed this weekend. When I removed all the rocks, coral, fish, and sand, I could see the center of the blowout web was under the large part of the island wall layout. The island was between 12 and 15 inches tall, well within normal expectation for a 24" tall tank. I brought out the level to make sure the stand hadn't shifted. None of the rocks had shifted. Clearly there was a pressure point on one of the rocks, and something caused it to finally give within 2 years of being setup. I was baffled. I can say I may have had a defective tank. I'll be working with Aqueon about the warranty.

Now I'm setting up the replacement tank. I think I will risk dead spots for the benefit and security of knowing 120 gallons of saltwater isn't going to flood my basement again. You can get the eggcrate that is really shallow, to limit the amount of waste buildup.

 

I put my rock on the glass then the substrate. My orchid dottyback has a nice den and I don't have to worry about anything falling on him or him getting trapped.

 

I used eggcrate under my sand setting up my first 125 it was one of my biggest regrets now.