Barebottom tanks

[mamagoose45]

I found three places locally that carry it.

Plastic Supply & Manufacturing Co.
1319 Lewis St
Nashville, TN 37210
254-5725
These guys only have the natural/white color available.

Regal Plastics Supply Co.
1055 Elm Hill Pike
Nashville, TN 37210
242-4800
I believe they had the natural/white as well as the black. They also carry the UHMW rods I mentioned.

Bruce Plastics Inc.
1061 Old Highway 109 N
Gallatin, TN 37066
452-7757
They for sure have the natural/white and the black. They also carry the UHMW rods I mentioned. I think we'll probably go with these guys for our stuff as they were the cheapest on the size/thickness/color that we want to use.

I found a bunch of suppliers online that sell it at a decent prize (some not so decent) but they nail you with shipping, and if you want to buy the rods, they have a decent prize per foot, but you have to buy 60' or so at a time. And they can't ship the rods UPS or FedEx because of the length, so they nail you with special shipping on them on top of the regular expensive shipping. So local is the way to go in my opinion...

 

[fishdoc11]

I bought a sheet of acrylic from Bruce plactics (cut in several pieces to my specs) one time and was happy with the product and service FWIW.

 

[mamagoose45]

Yeah, the lady I talked to today on the phone was VERY nice and patient with my 3000 questions I had for her...


Wait, a reefer with 3000 questions? UNHEARD OF!!

 

[gsusfreak]

thanks for all the info moriah....but im too cheap, so i'll go with eggcrate and sand again

 

[ocd_mariner]

Im 99% sure Im going to rip my sound out in the next week. The only issue I worry about is the lip at the bottom of the glasscages tank. I dont want to have starboard cut to the inside of the lip, that would look weird. Id like to have it cut where it sits on top of the lip. This makes me worry about the dead area under the starboard. Im thinking of siliconing around the starboard to keep detritus from getting underneath it.... but what could I do about the dead area under the starboard, just to set my mind at ease?

 

[NeveSSL]

Does sound=sand, Chuck? Or are the fish getting a new surround sound system?

Brandon

 

[DMBillies]

It would cost a lot more, but you could get a piece the thickness of the glass, cut it to fit inside the lip and then silicone it to another piece that fits on top of the ledges.

If no one here has a better idea post in the DIY forum... somebody has had to have had this problem.

 

[ocd_mariner]

-1 frag for brandon

 

[NeveSSL]

:lol: I was just asking. Geez!!!

Brandon

 

[ocd_mariner]

FYI:

Regal plastics quoted me a price of $58.13 for a sheet of 4'x2' white HDPE. Sounds like a pretty good deal.

 

[mamagoose45]

What thickness? We got our 1/2" piece cut to size (for the 90) for about $43 from Bruce Plastics. They also had the UHMW rods that we're going to use as supports when we redo the rock.

It'd definitely worth shopping around locally for stuff like this - it might be cheaper at first online, but they usually rake you across the coals with shipping.

 

[ocd_mariner]

What size rods did Bruce plastics have? Regal only had 1/2", and that seemed to large.

 

[mamagoose45]

They started at 1/4" and went up from there if I recall correctly. They don't keep all of them in stock, but they can order them. I placed an order on a Thursday and it was ready on Tuesday.

 

[ocd_mariner]

Would nylon rods be acceptable?

 

[imsqueak]

I used 1/4" in my 300g. I had to cut mine in half to get it in the tank. Detritus settled in the small gap in the middle and in time worked it's way under. that attracted small snails which eventually increased the gap and the crap build up. This also happened near the overflows where silicone made a small gap. It got somewhat nasty down there but that is also where my bristle worms and pods lived so the limited amount down there served a purpose, couldn't be seen topside, and was probably much less than what settles in a sandbed.

When doing rods or egg crate remember the main reason of doing BB is to keep detritus suspended so it eventually is mechanically removed by skimmer or filter. I'd think egg crate would be a bad idea.

 

[waynesworld]

I used egg crate but put it on pvc and have one of my runs of the closed loop blowing under it all it keeps things suspended very well.

 

[gsusfreak]

yea. i saw they way wayne did it ....its a cool idea....you should take a pic wayne

 

[fishdoc11]

As long as you aren't putting the eggcrate on the bottom it doesn't serve as a detritus trap and I think Don was talking about putting it on the bottom. Here is an example of a tank done the way Wayne described. Travis's tank is featured at the bottom of this page.
I personally wouldn't reccomend using eggcrate in sand either I did that on my first tank to hold up rock and the sandbed in the eggcrate turned rock solid.
FWIW, Chris
Chris