Egg crate
- Thread starter foozdog
- Start date
Aqua_DHMO_Tech
New member
I've seen it done on multiple occasions. I have some eggcrate I'm going to put down in my 150 deep dimension when I set it up to create a more stable rock structure. I always put my rocks in first, so just in case I get something that burrows, my rockwork won't collapse. When you put the rocks in first, as you stack they tend to slide around on the glass- a panel of eggcrate will solve this- *edit* assuming the eggcrate is tight fitted panel to panel so itself doesn't slide around!
xCry0x
Active member
I heard people saying it is bad to do unless you go bare bottom because the egg crate can trap 'bad stuff' (for lack of a better phrase).
But if the above poster is doing it fine, then who is to say what is good vs bad... seems one persons bad experience is the next persons bad one.
Regardless if you want to stop rock from sliding you could just put a 1/2' of sand in, then rocks, then the rest of the sand.
But if the above poster is doing it fine, then who is to say what is good vs bad... seems one persons bad experience is the next persons bad one.
Regardless if you want to stop rock from sliding you could just put a 1/2' of sand in, then rocks, then the rest of the sand.
My dad always did this because he didn't like the thought of rock sitting on bare glass. My issue with it was always that detritus can get trapped in the egg crate and the little spaces are so small... your CUC can't get to the detritus. But, to be fair, he never seemed to have any problems because of it.
I do it on all my tanks. It's not to protect the bottom of the tank, it helps to prevent rock work from shifting. The grid helps lock the rocks in place. I've never had an issue with detritus building up in the sand, the grid sits less than a 1/2" off the bottom, snails and starfish can easily access the space between.
billdogg
Well-known member
I have it in one tank, not the other. I put it in the 150 because Hannibal, my 4' moray likes to rearrange things every once in awhile. When he finally goes to that big fishtank in the sky, I'll probably go without. No problems, but with a shallow bed it gets uncovered now and again.
Ron Reefman
Active member
I set up egg crate to cover most of the bottom of my tank, but I set it up on 1" diameter pvc pipe legs so it sits just above the sand. Better water flow around the entire rock. More sand for critters that use the sand. Small fish, stars, shrimp can get under the rock but big fish can't. Then about half of the tank (from the middle to one end) I did a second shelf about 3-4" above the bottom egg crate, but it only extends out about half as far from the back as the bottom egg crate. That creates a cave behind the rock for sleeping ect. I have rock piled up from 5-6" off the front glass (open sand) and it slopes up about 75% of the back glass. Rocks cover 99% of the eggcrate, including the edges and coraline hides the rest after about 3 months. It looks like 300 pounds of rock work, but there is only about 150 pounds in the DT and more in the sump.
daplatapus
New member
I'm assuming you guys are using the white plastic egg crate, correct?
vwwanksta69
New member
My buddy just bought some dead sand and put that underneath his base rock in order to help spread the weight of the rocks on the glass instead of using crates.
Tin_Whistler
Mayor of Podunk
The problem with sand under the rocks is that if you’ve got any fish/inverts that burrow they run the risk of dropping the rock on themselves.
vwwanksta69
New member
+1 forgot to mention that.
