To Egg Crate or not?

[Madreefer]

A freind of mine put eggcrate in the bottom of his. Over time the sand eventually got moved around and it the eggcrate was visible. Looks like crap when that happens. It has now been removed. Use a thin peice of acrylic as others have suggested.

[jon.smolders]

For years I never used eggcrate (and I still got a lot of detris buildup under my live rock), but finally decided to add some last January when I set the tank up again after we moved. Instead of doing the whole tank bottom, however, I cut out small chunks and strips (2"-3" pieces) and placed them under the parts of the rock that were touching the bottom. This gave the rock extra support, but left very little eggcrate to look ugly or catch detris. My sand is only about 1" deep... if it were deeper I would add short PVC pipe legs to the bottom of the eggcrate pieces to raise the rock up a bit so it wasn't buried in the sand quite so much. Works for me... I don't know if it benefits the tank much or not, but I havn't had any problems so far.

[cathyg_99]

i used it on the very bottom, added my sand then rock, its just piece of mind that i dont have rock sitting right ontop of glass, the only time ive ever seen my egg crate is when my yellow had a freak out and knocked over a rock, other than that theres a good 2-3 inch sandbed, i still see pods(or other crawlers in the sand) and a happy sandsifting starfish, snails, and a small horse shoe crab

so i really think its personal preference

[mike31154]

I cut sections of black, large diameter ABS pipe to support several large pieces of my rock. Drilled holes into the sides of the pipe as well to allow for some movement of sand & prevent stagnant areas inside. Will probably do the same for my next build, but this time I'll plan a little better and silicone the pieces of ABS to the bottom. Gets the rockwork higher & mostly out of the substrate so you get max benefit from your LR. Certain types of ABS tend to float & since my system was purchased second hand, I was aquascaping with water & critters in the tank, positioning the ABS pieces was a chore with them wanting to float away on me. What I found good about the ABS is that different lengths can be cut to raise certain rock features a little higher. You can also serrate the rim (cut the edge of the pipe) to make notches for the rock to fit into. Can be a bit fiddly I guess, but if you're in the planning stages with a dry tank, should be easy.

My Maroon clown tends to rearrange the sand around her territory and she's exposed a section of the pipe, but it's partially covered with coralline now, so not too much of an eyesore. Here's a quick pic of a section of ABS halved. All the pieces I have at the moment are full circles with holes cut in, but for next build I might try this & silicone them down once I have the rock work the way I want it. Need to clean up the cuts of course.

[Steve'o]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.. bit of both ways on the eggcrate..
i like the idea of the abs pipe cut into small sections under the rock for support..
I might just try that
Steve'o