Egg crate base under substrate - anyone tried it?

[Floyd R Turbo]

I was trying to figure out a way to protect the bottom of a glass tank from a catastrophic failure in the instance that a fish, whether it be FW or SW, would dig out the substrate underneath a rock structure, causing it to settle into the bottom glass hard enough to crack it - which, or course, would be very much bad. I got the idea that putting down egg crate would do the job. Has anyone tried this?

This initially would be for a FW 225 Glass that I would be setting up as a cichlid tank with pool filter sand as a substrate, possibly with some crushed coral mixed in (but that might just be put in the sump). What I was going to do was put down the egg crate, fill in the sand to cover it up, build the rock structure for the cichlids on that, and them fill in about another inch or so of sand, so the rocks would initially be sitting on the egg crate.

I thought this might work well because from what I've heard about PFS, it doesn't allow waste to settle into it, so I wouldn't be causing an anaerobic pocket. Even if I was, the egg crate is only 1/4" thick, and 5/8" holes, so it wouldn't be like you couldn't suck the substrate out if need be (not worried about that anyways).

I also thought this might work well in a SW tank with heavy LR. In either case, I suppose it might work just as well to put the rock in first directly on the glass, but has anyone else tried this with success, failure, or somewhere in between?

 

[mfdrookie516]

Im not big on eggcrate on the bottom, just because it has the possibility of collecting gunk... For the most part, if you put the "base" rocks down against the glass, they cant move. I considered this when i set my 150g mbuna tank up and several people gave me the same idea about the egg crate causing issues down the road... In theory, it should work good though, and if you keep up on your vacs (which reading through the overhaul thread you have, looks like you do), you may not have any problems... jmo though

 

[mgamer20o0]

a lot of people use egg create to help even out the weight and keep the weight off a single point. i would just add MTS so it helps break up the substrate.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

It is for this tank

I figured there wouldn't be a problem using egg crate as long as I was using PFS for a substrate, because I've heard that it compacts enough so that it won't let detritus build up down deep - is that not true? But yes, I am pretty thorough in my cleaning routine. Thanks for the reading my 135 journal!

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

a lot of people use egg create to help even out the weight and keep the weight off a single point. i would just add MTS so it helps break up the substrate.

I thought MTS would be good also, except this is at a restaurant (same as the 135 journal thread) and he did not like it when it got snails in it last time it was up and running, so that's not an option.

 

[mgamer20o0]

you going to be in charge of maintaining the tank? you could just use chop sticks when water changing to mix it up. MTS hide for the most part during the day and come out when the lights are off.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I decided it was time to start a journal on this tank before I end up with too many threads about too many topics for it!! Please continue this conversation on this thread, if you please!!

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/tank-journal-225-cichlid-habitat-124880.html#post1062928

my response to the last post is on the thread starter. Thanks!