To Use or Not to Use Egg Crate?

[Beausoleiljacob]

Hey Reef Central,
I'm not quite sure what I want to do and need someone else's opinion. I have a 60 gallon Rimless Cube made by Marineland. All of the glass is NOT tempered. Anyways, I'm not sure whether or not I should use egg crate or not use egg crate? If so, should I add the whole tanks foot print, or just under the rock structures. How do I secure the rock if I just use the egg crate right under the rock? Thanks! :fish1:

 

[Member No. 1]

Are you planning on sand or going bare bottom (BB)?

 

[Beausoleiljacob]

Are you planning on sand or going bare bottom (BB)?

Sand of course!

 

[davocean]

I used eggcrate for many years, many tanks, never been harmful IME, I'm only w/out it now because my acrylic rod pillar holder I made has a flat acrylic bottom.
We have quakes here, I did not want rock vibrating on glass bottom, now I have that w/ increased stability as well

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have had egg crate under my rocks for 5 years now. BUT, I set the egg crate up on pvc pipe legs that set it about 1" or 2" above the sand! Then set smaller rocks along the edge of the egg crate to hide it.

You get water flow under your rocks, you provide animals who want open sandy spaces a lot of extra room (wrasses, sea stars, sea cucumbers, etc), you expose more rock surface so more area for good bacteria to grow and small fish can hide under it and big fish can't get under it. And after a short time you can't see any of the egg crate.

 

[gone fishin]

I placed some egg crate pieces under my rock. It has been that way for a few years now.

 

[Saltine]

I have had egg crate under my rocks for 5 years now. BUT, I set the egg crate up on pvc pipe legs that set it about 1" or 2" above the sand! Then set smaller rocks along the edge of the egg crate to hide it.

You get water flow under your rocks, you provide animals who want open sandy spaces a lot of extra room (wrasses, sea stars, sea cucumbers, etc), you expose more rock surface so more area for good bacteria to grow and small fish can hide under it and big fish can't get under it. And after a short time you can't see any of the egg crate.

I had this same question as I'm upgrading tanks, what is the purpose of putting the "legs" on the egg crate?

thanks!
Salt

 

[thelawnwrangler]

I bought egg crate cut it to size, and then didn't use it. I put the rock directly on glass and sand around it. In retrospect it might have been nice. Because you will probably put an inch or two of sand, so you maintain rock stability and you have that much more exposed.

 

[Sounds Fishy]

+1 egg rate.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I had this same question as I'm upgrading tanks, what is the purpose of putting the "legs" on the egg crate?

thanks!
Salt

With the legs you lift the egg crate off the bottom glass and out of the sand where it can help hold detritus (IMHO not a big issue) and it sits 1" to 2" above the sand.

As I said in the post,"You get water flow under your rocks (better over all circulation), you provide animals who want open sandy spaces a lot of extra room (wrasses, sea stars, sea cucumbers, etc), you expose more rock surface so more area for good bacteria to grow and small fish can hide under it and big fish can't get under it."

I'd never set up another tank with out doing the raised egg crate. It's just too easy.

 

[Ejazzle]

Do you have a picture of the raised egg crate before you covered it? I'd like to see how you connected the legs to the egg crate

 

[RayAllen3422]

Do you have a picture of the raised egg crate before you covered it? I'd like to see how you connected the legs to the egg crate

Yeah. I have similar questions. I can't picture it in my head on how to do it. I asked a similar question a month ago with the same reply.

 

[Jscwerve]

I just google searched "PVC eggcrate reef" and theres a bunch of results. I'd post some here, but I don't know how they feel about cross-linking on here.

Picked up a sheet of crate myself on the way home yesterday just because of this thread!

 

[jsnrho82]

With the legs you lift the egg crate off the bottom glass and out of the sand where it can help hold detritus (IMHO not a big issue) and it sits 1" to 2" above the sand.

As I said in the post,"You get water flow under your rocks (better over all circulation), you provide animals who want open sandy spaces a lot of extra room (wrasses, sea stars, sea cucumbers, etc), you expose more rock surface so more area for good bacteria to grow and small fish can hide under it and big fish can't get under it."

I'd never set up another tank with out doing the raised egg crate. It's just too easy.

Very cool idea! I might use this on my next build.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I drilled a small hole in the end of the pvc pipe and tied it to the egg crate with a small cable tie.

Here is a shot of the tank all plumbed and running with 'test' water. You can see the egg crate platforms (one even has a 2nd level) and the 6" pvc pipe cave. The plumbing over the top of the tank is a closed loop with an OceanMotion and Revolution heads. The OceanMotion runs 3 of the outlets and the one that is 'off' will move to the next pipe every 15 seconds. The Revolution heads go down with water pressure from the flow and 'float' back up with trapped air when there is no water pressure. Each time they move down or up they rotate about 12 degree so the nozzles never point at the same area two times in a row and a full cycle takes 15 minutes. The square 'S' shape pipes down the back glass (a bit difficult to pick out of the... mess?) is the return from the sump. It's just pvc pipe with lots of small holes drilled in at different angles so return water will spray out from behind the LR wall and keep the LR clean. There are 2 and they alternate back and forth. The linelock outlets on the bottom front are the return lines from the chiller which is out behind the house in a plastic shelter. There are also 2 extra drains at the back of the tank. One feeds the closed loop and the other feeds the skimmer by gravity only with an internal pump just for circulation and air mixing.




This is what the tank looked like about 6 months ago, shortly after I did a major fragging event to make room for a lot of new corals. I had about 25 really big colonies (the Hollywood Stunner was almost 20" in diameter). After I greatly reduced the size of the colonies I added about 40 new corals. And I have since added some rock and coral at the outer edge of the big pvc pipe cave so you don't see the pipe unless you look inside with a flashlight.

 

[billdogg]

I used eggcrate in my 150 when I set it up for my eel, just because he (4' Gymnothorax Undulatus) would rearrange things to his liking. I ended up making him a couple caves with several other large rocks resting on the eggcrate so that he couldn't create any more rockslides.

If you design your layout correctly, there really shouldn't be a need for it. I had never used it before then, and I haven't used it since. When I set up my 120, I placed the rocks so that they really can't fall (with nothing fastened together) and then added the sand. It is when you put in the sand first, then the rocks on top that you have the biggest chance for a rockslide.

 

[Zach C.]

I got a couple of questions about the raised eggcrate with the legs. Has anyone had any circulation issues or weight issues?

 

[Ron Reefman]

I got a couple of questions about the raised eggcrate with the legs. Has anyone had any circulation issues or weight issues?

With pvc legs in enough places and you can stand on the egg crate. And LR (if it's good LR) gets so much lighter in the in the water. If you did a 12" x 12" egg crate pad and used 3 rows of 3 legs with 1"pvc pipe, you could pile rock to the top of you tank and the egg crate would be just fine.

As for circulation, mine works well because the 'spray bars' down the back of the tank make water move under the rocks. Given almost nobody else has such a spray bar system, I'd suggest 1 or 2 small powerheads placed near the bottom of the tank pointed under the rock. It's possible a new gyre with the laminar flow might work well for this. As soon as Jebao gets their inexpensive version on the market I plan to give it a try.

BTW, I learned this raised egg crate idea from a couple of other members in my local club who use it on big tanks.

 

[biecacka]

Ron, I know you are very experienced so I'm calling you out in any way shape or form but I am asking for others as well. The PVC "S" return line from the he sump with multiple holes in it, does it have a hole above the water line or directly under it in the event of power loss so it won't back siphon your whole tank? I assume it does but didn't see mention of it and it's an important safety factor for someone else who might be interested in doing something similar.

Corey

 

[gottalikesharks]

I drilled a small hole in the end of the pvc pipe and tied it to the egg crate with a small cable tie.

Here is a shot of the tank all plumbed and running with 'test' water. You can see the egg crate platforms (one even has a 2nd level) and the 6" pvc pipe cave. The plumbing over the top of the tank is a closed loop with an OceanMotion and Revolution heads. The OceanMotion runs 3 of the outlets and the one that is 'off' will move to the next pipe every 15 seconds. The Revolution heads go down with water pressure from the flow and 'float' back up with trapped air when there is no water pressure. Each time they move down or up they rotate about 12 degree so the nozzles never point at the same area two times in a row and a full cycle takes 15 minutes. The square 'S' shape pipes down the back glass (a bit difficult to pick out of the... mess?) is the return from the sump. It's just pvc pipe with lots of small holes drilled in at different angles so return water will spray out from behind the LR wall and keep the LR clean. There are 2 and they alternate back and forth. The linelock outlets on the bottom front are the return lines from the chiller which is out behind the house in a plastic shelter. There are also 2 extra drains at the back of the tank. One feeds the closed loop and the other feeds the skimmer by gravity only with an internal pump just for circulation and air mixing.




This is what the tank looked like about 6 months ago, shortly after I did a major fragging event to make room for a lot of new corals. I had about 25 really big colonies (the Hollywood Stunner was almost 20" in diameter). After I greatly reduced the size of the colonies I added about 40 new corals. And I have since added some rock and coral at the outer edge of the big pvc pipe cave so you don't see the pipe unless you look inside with a flashlight.

Very clever on the pvc cave Ron Reefman!!!