Best thing for under live rock structure?

[luv951]

What is the best thing to put under your live rock?

Egg crate?

PVC Shelf?

Starboard?

Keep in mind, I am not thrilled about ordering starboard online and would most likely just buy some cutting boards. My structure only touches down in certain spots, the biggest being about 12 x 14.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Unless sealed in with silicone, starboard will get a bunch of detritus under it. Eggcrate inhibits flow at the bottom of the tank unless you just build box's out of them with zipties and attach rock to them.

PVC can be plumbed into your recirculation, kept minimal and provide a good bit of structure to the tank.

You can also drill holes through your rock and make fiberglass rod "stands" to stack some rock on to provide structure.

 

[luv951]

Should have mentioned that I plan to have sand in my tank. So, whatever I put down there will be covered.

Thanks for the help though : )

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

i just used rock, i have over 130lbs in my 90g, i'd say almost 1/3 of my rock is under the substrate.

 

[luv951]

how does that work? You must have a reaaaalllly deep sand bed if you have 40 lbs of rock in it. How far up the tank does it go?

 

[luv951]

bump....

 

[ReefWreak]

If you're putting sand and rocks, I would imagine that a huge majority of people who set up tanks tend not to put anything under their rocks. The traditional way of setting up a tank with sand and liverock is to put the rock directly on the glass, then fill in the sand around it. The rock bare on the glass won't break anything unless you have a rockslide. The sand will stabilize the bottom rocks, and will dampen the impact if a rock falls. An important consideration to minimizing dead spots and spots of buildup in the tank of nutrients will be minimizing the area of contact between rocks and sand. Stack the bottom rocks as well as possible so that as little rock is touching the sand as possible, then build up. It'll help the flow and help keep detritus moving instead of settling into the sand.

I've had a few rockslides while my 120g tank was new, and with a sand bed and the rocks landing on the sand, I never had any problems with glass breaking (though I was definitely scared crapless)

 

[mg426]

I use a PVC structure to keep my rock off of the sand. I also have provided for flow under the Live rock.