DSB/Live Rock Question

[petersolson]

I am starting to set up my 75 gallon tank. I intend to use a 3" DSB with LR. I put a piece of egg crate in the bottom of the tank, and spread 50lbs of sand. I then put in 90 lbs of www.hirocks.com base rock on top of that, wiggling it to set it firmly on the eggcrate. I intend to put 40 lbs of liverocks.com LR on top of that, and let it seed the base rock over time. I then added another 50 lbs of sand, and it occurred to me: aren't i just burying a lot of the base rock thereby removing a lot of its effectiveness? I set it on the eggcrate so it would not topple over, but now it seems ot me it should not be completely buried. anyway, any thoughts are welcome.

 

[phases99]

If you elevate the eggcrate with PVC that would allow the base rock to play a larger role in the biological filtration eventually. Many folks lay the base rock directly on the glass to assure the rockwork will not tumble as the aragonite dissolves, that will probably give you the sturdiest results. As long as you keep at least 1lb per gallon above the sand you should be fine as far as biological filtration goes.

 

[petersolson]

Thanks for your suggestion! -pso

 

[hforney]

It will probably be 2 months before I set up my tank but I too was wondering whether to egg crate or not.

 

[cmor1701d]

Place the rock on the bare bottom. It prevents a buildup of gasses under the rock from bubbles coming up from the sand. The gas can be lethal to your tank inhabitants.

The danger of rock moving is from blennies and other sand sifters that move sand around. They can destabilize the rock framework and CRASH, a rock hits the glass....

I don't believe that arogonite sand will dissolve in a marine aquarium. The surrounding water would have to be acidic (<7.0 pH) to cause that and a marine tank never gets that low.