Rocks On Glass Or Eggcrate

[red33dragon]

Just wondering how many of you stack your rocks right on the glass, or use eggcrate. Just bought some rock off a guy and he said his tank cracked from the rocks. I know the 160 gallon tank I'll be going to in future has thick glass. And eggcrate creates lots of dead pockets that clean up crew can't get to. But rocks only touch in a few little spots creating pressure points. Been reading online pros and cons but like to know what everyone else is doing.


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[Shooter000]

You could always cut the egg crate to smaller sizes just to fit under the rocks, still giving you lots of surface area for the egg crate to dispurse the weight, or try and find some good flat base rocks for the foundation, "he must of had some pretty pointy rocks for it to bust his glass like that"

Sean

 

[heath]

I have egg crate in 2 of my tanks...

 

[chrisstevens]

Egg crate here

 

[Bece13]

You could always cut the egg crate to smaller sizes just to fit under the rocks, still giving you lots of surface area for the egg crate to dispurse the weight, or try and find some good flat base rocks for the foundation, "he must of had some pretty pointy rocks for it to bust his glass like that"

Sean

+1 on this...

 

[TORX]

I always suggest eggcrate. It also helps level rock as the points recess into the holes. Doing the entire tank is fine as the clean up crew doesn't dig that deep into the sand bed typically. But if you have a low spot created after a while, then the egg crate will show. I have that issue on my 120.

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[MeridiaRose]

I am probably wrong in doing this but its worked for me for both my saltwater tanks but I put a thin layer of live sand down then my rocks then the rest of my sand. I always look for and use the flat side of the rock for the bottom and I make sure that they are super stable. I'm not so much worried about my fish knocking anything over I'm more worried about me knocking things over as I'm known to be on the clumsy side.

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[EricTMah]

I am probably wrong in doing this but its worked for me for both my saltwater tanks but I put a thin layer of live sand down then my rocks then the rest of my sand. I always look for and use the flat side of the rock for the bottom and I make sure that they are super stable. I'm not so much worried about my fish knocking anything over I'm more worried about me knocking things over as I'm known to be on the clumsy side.

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+1

In all the years I've been doing this and in the 25+ yrs I've had tanks. I've never used egg crate under my rocks.

I've never heard of a tank bottom cracking because rocks were placed directly on the glass. Unless you have a tumble in your rock work.

But I guess egg crate under the rocks wouldn't hurt.

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[Bece13]

You can also use a thin piece of acrylic under the rocks. Acrylic is really strong and will distribute the pressure points.
I didn't use anything under my rocks, but I was not concerned about scratching the glass. About cracking? Hmmm... pretty very low chances I think. I guess it also depends on the glass. If it's tempered then it will not crack it will shattered but you must hit it really, really hard. The tempered glass is more vulnerable if you hit it from the side. If is normal glass it could crack if it is scratched but depends on the scratch and how deep it is. I believe you should be more concern about dropping a rock on the glass then anything else. If you are really concern about this you can use a thin piece of any kind of acrylic on the whole bottom instead of eggcrate.

 

[Nonuser]

I have nothing under my rocks, I don't even have sand in the tank.. I have never heard of anyone actually breaking the glass because of a rock falling in the tank. Anything you use in the tank that created dead flow areas can cause issues.

 

[Luke.]

What I always did was a nice 3-4" sand bed and wiggle the rocks in the sand (I've had some nice structures before and never had an issue or never even seen my rock touch the glass through the sand that's my way of doing it .

 

[Canadianeh]

egg crate here too. I only cut small pieces of egg crate just enough to put under the touching points between the rock and the glass.

 

[Nonuser]

Get a wack of these glue to bottom of rocks - Profit!

 

[red33dragon]

Thanks for all your input..


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[Kman]

At one time it was popular to place the rocks on things like egg crate, plastic, styrofoam to name a few. But I have not noticed any long term advantages over placing the rocks on the glass. So it comes down to preference. Some people argued that it is better water flow, but really proper rock placement for the foundation stones is more important and is a bigger impact. So it come down to personal preference. I myself place the foundation stones on the bottom then add my substrate. I typically don't put to much substrate under the rock structure and have the thicker portion in the open areas. This cuts down on build up of nutrients under the rocks structure and keeps the substrate in areas that I can access and easily manage.

 

[Nonuser]

I always wondered why the under gravel filer didn't make a comeback or be still in use. Very much like egg crate and would keep your rocks off the glass and have flow under the bed (sand would prolly not work. But coarse aggregate would.

 

[Kman]

I tested the under gravel filter years ago and the plenum style as well. Long term I found they started to get dirty and sometimes clogged. If you kept LPS, Soft corals, mushrooms and zoe it was alright but if you tried SPS they didn't like it. As it was a constant battle to keep the nutrients to a level the SPS did well at. LPS and soft loved it.

 

[Nonuser]

I tested the under gravel filter years ago and the plenum style as well. Long term I found they started to get dirty and sometimes clogged. If you kept LPS, Soft corals, mushrooms and zoe it was alright but if you tried SPS they didn't like it. As it was a constant battle to keep the nutrients to a level the SPS did well at. LPS and soft loved it.

That is why I wonder about everyone wanting to add media to their Sump. But I have noticed that without substrate I have had a harder time with the corals then I did with the smaller tank with sand substrate. Once I tore the tank down the amount of detritus in the sand was significant. So I'm not sure of the answer. Because any additional media that can collect detritus will just add to your water issues, I would think.

 

[Kman]

It is because substrate is very productive even at a few inches vs none at all. It helps process a lot of waste as well as produce a lot of crustaceans towards the food web and helps buffer swings in PH because of the calcium carbonate it is made out of. The food web in turn also help process algae and other waste. No substrate in inert not adding much value to the tank. All it does is move waste from one area to another. It doesn't buffer against PH swings or crashes, doesn't process waste or produce food web. Only benefit is if you run constant mechanical filtration you can remove the detritus before it breaks down. Down side to that is you remove a large portion of your food web as well as the mechanical filtration is indiscriminate in what is removes.