Good idea-- egg crate on bottom?

hypancistrus

hypancistrus

Member
I am setting up a 50 gallon aquarium. It will house a snowflake moray eel.
In freshwater circles, it is often reccomended that if you are going to house "diggers" like cichlids with big rocks, that you put egg crate on the bottom of the tank so if a rock were to topple, the tank bottom would be protected.
Is this a good idea in a marine tank, or is it a waste of time and money??
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
Who is going to be the digger? Personally I think it is a bad idea. That egg crate is going to collect all sorts of detritus. That sw fish are a lot more sensitive to poor water levels that than fw fish. Plus with the grain size of sand we typically use you can't really vacuums it without suck out a bunch of sand too. The eel isn't going to put big holes in your substrate. There are some rare situations where egg crate can be beneficial. But only when doing some huge CYA like putting your lr on than to spread out the weight of the rock vs on the points that it is sitting on the bottom pane of glass. But almost no one does that until you start talking 100's of points of lr.
 
hypancistrus

hypancistrus

Member
That was my major concern as well, the collection of pockets of detritus. So you think for a 50 with a small rock structure, I'd be okay with just the rock?? I am putting in PVC tunnels for the eel. I hope he would use those instead of making his own tunnels.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
i think it's a great idea, and even did it in my little 20 gallon mantis tank. if there's sand over the eggcrate, how will detritus get there?
 
howardj

howardj

Active Member
I think it can do more good than harm

Glad to see you are getting back in, Hyp!
I would also do the PVC, though.
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Search this forum for my 180 build thread. I accomplished what you are talking about using PVC pipe. I built a sort of grid on the bottom and make sure the rocks rested on the pipe. I did it for the same reason you are, I wanted to keep jawfish and didn't want the rocks to collapse if the dug under it. The pipe IMO is even better than eggcrate, because it provides cavities underneath for them to dig into.
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
I also did the pvc pipes. I made squares and set my bottom rock on them so they were stable then built up from there. My eng goby loves it.
T
 
hypancistrus

hypancistrus

Member
I've posted the question on 4 different forums and only run into two people who were emphatic "YES" on the crate, so I am going to forgo that. I am using the PVC pipe instead to make the rock more stable. I had a bunch of really big chunks of cheap-o marine reef rock leftover from an old african mbuna freshwater tank, and I am using those to make the base of the pile.
I am going to the LFS today to pick up some more baserock. I am going to look for some more lace rock pieces to make a cave for the lion, and some mid-sized, more structurally interesting marine reef rock pieces to build a second level on the level I have. I put the rock into the tank this morning so I can build on it this afternoon.
Here are a few pics I took of my efforts last night.
The empty tank, in my living room:

The eel pipe, made out of 1.5" PVC.

First stack of base rock, which fits pretty tightly over the Y in the pipe... you can see where I siliconed the three pieces together. I was it to be strong and stable, but removeable.

The two large groups together over the eel pipe.

I really don't have the cash to be hurried on this. I am basically going to take my time and go slow and build the rock stack. I am hoping to get salt water in next weekend, and then add a few small pieces of really good quality liverock from my LFS to start "seeding the pile." Once I get my income tax refund back, I am going to take a small amount of that and buy a few pounds of really "pretty" liverock to go on the top.
If anyone sees any problems or forsees ANY issues, tell me now, because as I said, I'm moving slow on this with no particular timetable and I'd rather fix issues now than when I have a lion in the tank!
Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
stdreb27

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by Hypancistrus
http:///forum/post/2897496
I've posted the question on 4 different forums and only run into two people who were emphatic "YES" on the crate, so I am going to forgo that. I am using the PVC pipe instead to make the rock more stable. I had a bunch of really big chunks of cheap-o marine reef rock leftover from an old african mbuna freshwater tank, and I am using those to make the base of the pile.
I am going to the LFS today to pick up some more baserock. I am going to look for some more lace rock pieces to make a cave for the lion, and some mid-sized, more structurally interesting marine reef rock pieces to build a second level on the level I have. I put the rock into the tank this morning so I can build on it this afternoon.
Here are a few pics I took of my efforts last night.
The empty tank, in my living room:

The eel pipe, made out of 1.5" PVC.

First stack of base rock, which fits pretty tightly over the Y in the pipe... you can see where I siliconed the three pieces together. I was it to be strong and stable, but removeable.

The two large groups together over the eel pipe.

I really don't have the cash to be hurried on this. I am basically going to take my time and go slow and build the rock stack. I am hoping to get salt water in next weekend, and then add a few small pieces of really good quality liverock from my LFS to start "seeding the pile." Once I get my income tax refund back, I am going to take a small amount of that and buy a few pounds of really "pretty" liverock to go on the top.
If anyone sees any problems or forsees ANY issues, tell me now, because as I said, I'm moving slow on this with no particular timetable and I'd rather fix issues now than when I have a lion in the tank!
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Instead of using the old fw rock, especially if you have time, find your local reef club and buy "used" rock from members there. You aught to be able to find rock from other reefers for around 2 dollars a pound. And that includes nicer rock.
 
sharkbait9

sharkbait9

Active Member
All my tanks have egg crate bottoms. It helps prevent rock sitting on the glass, keeps anything from digging under the rock and shifting sand and causing a possible rock slide. As long as you have snails that burrow you need not worry about dead spots.
 
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