Live rock covering bottom of tank

[homesick fisho]

OK maybe a crazy idea but here goes. I want the benefits of a bare bottom tank but I hate the look. What if.....

What if I get a large number of very small to small live rocks, carefully cut in half or hit the bottoms with the grinder to make them flat and adhere them "somehow" to either egg crate or directly onto a piece of star board? I would think that it wouldn't be that hard to "mosaic" these pieces into a piece with a very nice texture with very little gaps between. If it was egg crate I could possibly adhere them in place with a mortar mix. If starboard and they are flat maybe a marine safe epoxy would suffice and fill the gaps with ???

I would take this piece or pieces and put directly onto the bottom of the tank before putting in my bigger pieces of live rock.

I have designed an overflow box with an internal weir that will pull crap from not only the top of the water but down near the bottom as well. This should allow me to really crank up some flow without creating a sand storm and pull all the nasties down into the sump.

I have seen the egg crate idea used for overflow boxes but not a tank floor.

I'd bet that given a few months it would crust over and look very natural. I'd also think that it would also still host plenty of bacteria and the large surface area should also help.

Am I crazy or will this work?? How do you think this will look? I don't want a faux sand bed.

 

[smellslikeTUNA]

Not sure if this idea will work but heres some pics that I think kind of highlight what your talking about if you do decide to pursue this plan

http://www.marcorocks.com/aquascapetricksandtips.aspx

I would imagine that it would work if you siphoned the rocks thoroughly and often, otherwise I could see you having problems similar to those that are brought on by using crushed coral

 

[spieszak]

half of the bottom of my 5 gal pico is covered with rubble rock, the other half a very shallow bed of sand. No gluing or egg crate, no grinding to make the bottoms flat. Because they rubble is larger than crushed coral, the gaps are larger, and I've had no problem at all with detritus build up... and have never even had to siphon from it, since the larger gaps leave little room to trap it. Its the rough edges on crushed coral that trap IMO, the rubble rock is much "rounder"

 

[tyler22]

I could see it working if you took an averaged size piece of live or dry rock and cut it directly in half then glued that to starboard, you could do this with a couple of rocks until it was filled then use a type of epoxy the type used for making rock structures and filled in the left over gaps using that

 

[yogoshio]

This is essentially how I made my rock wall.

Another option is use envirotex lite and pour it then put the rocks in, similar to how a faux sand bed is made, then just throw some sand in the cracks or something.

 

[homesick fisho]

I think Tyler 22 is onto something. Just wonder if the porosity of the rock will work against me, soak up the glue and not bond to the starboard?

I thought that I could somehow make a wooden frame the exact size of my tank bottom coat with "cling wrap" or some other non stick material and pour a thin layer of epoxy in the frame and then set the flattened ground off parts of the rocks into the epoxy. Remove the frame after curing. I'm not after a flat bottom but a series of mounds basically making the surface look like the top of an entire rock.

I could also set some threaded nylon uprights in the epoxy for holding the larger rock structure in place.

I'm going for a horseshoe or ampitheatre style main rock scape with a high back and sloping down to the ends onto the lower rock bottom. It will however have a gap in the centre bottom of the main structure to allow flow through.

I want my scape set in stone BEFORE it goes in the tank. I will take my time and get it exactly the way I want it before it gets wet.

I'm also over trying to wedge rocks into each other while underwater and the inevitable collapses and destruction of the living things we are entrusted to take care of.

Think the open but lumpy rock front area of the front would be a great place for small monti caps or similar. Whatever is down there is going to get some serious water flow. I want to try and try and eliminate any dead spots and not spend my life siphoning crap out of the bottom.

By the way, the tank is a brand new 2 foot cube with 10 mm thick low iron glass. Currently sitting in a wooden crate before making it's way back to Australia on a slow boat. I hope the shipping company are kind to it They can trash my clothes in another container but if they smash my new toy I will cry :-(

 

[dingodan87]

Did you ever follow through with this plan? Im about to try the same thing but with all the rockwork sloping into a drain at he bottom for detritus removal. How did it go for you?

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