Just Started New Tank

[Devilish]

Have finally started my new tank after breaking down old one about a year ago. I will be using sand as a substrate which I yet to purchase. As of right now I have my live rock sitting in tank on top of some eggcrate as not to sit on the glass bottom. Was wondering if it is ok to leave the eggcrate in a base for the rock and then fill with sand. Could this lead to any problem with sand stirrers, ie: injuries, getting stuck, or lead to problems with the sand not getting fully stirred in between the grid? Any comments are appreciated. Photos will follow with my progress.

 

[7faces]

I made a post about this, and got some mixed reviews...the nay sayers seem to have said it out of educated guesses, but the majority said they didnt see any problems with it, and a few said they have used egg crate for some time with no ill effects...
I went ahead and used it in my tank as well, but its only been up for a few weeks...so i cant make my own judgement yet..
I sure hope its ok!

 

[BToast]

Can't you just do egg crate under the rocks only, to distribute the weight? Just a thought. I would think it would call for a deeper bed, but thier seems to benefit to that as well.

 

[Devilish]

I guess I could just lay a thin layer of sand first, lay the rock and then "top off" the sand after the base is done. This will be simple enough since I have just begun and am work from scratch. Not worth the headaches if any should arise from such a trivial thing.

 

[Devilish]

Well, I picked up some more LR for the tank and sump. Below are some photos. Now I need some sand and to set up my ATO and then I think I'm sent. Let know what you think. Any comments or opinions would be appreciated.

 

[Reefscape]

Have finally started my new tank after breaking down old one about a year ago. I will be using sand as a substrate which I yet to purchase. As of right now I have my live rock sitting in tank on top of some eggcrate as not to sit on the glass bottom. Was wondering if it is ok to leave the eggcrate in a base for the rock and then fill with sand. Could this lead to any problem with sand stirrers, ie: injuries, getting stuck, or lead to problems with the sand not getting fully stirred in between the grid? Any comments are appreciated. Photos will follow with my progress.

Using egg crate as the base to put live rock on is absolutly fine, never heard or seen of any issue caused by doing this from myself or others..Best not to add a layer of sand then add the rock on to this as it will lead to instability from burrows / diggers..

The tank is looking great so far...good work indeed....

 

[Devilish]

Well, beens a while since I posted anything on this. Started it with good intentions to keep track of the tank at least weekly; but I guess every 5 months will do. Got a bunch of new goodies over the past couple weeks, so decided show them off a little.

Top Left: Full Tank
Top Right: 4 Blue/Green Chromis (fun little guys)
2nd Left: New Leather & Orange Ric
2nd Right: Nano Neon Blue Zoos
3rd Left: Close up of leather, guy at store told me Colt, but a little iffy on that.
3rd Right: Close up of Orange Ricordea with a bright green mouth.
Bottom Pict: Green Hairy Mushroom rock. Got about 10-11 shrooms on it. Hope they fill out.

Definitely been going through a bunch of headaches with this tank, but worth it. Hope you enjoyed. Feel free to critique if you care to.

 

[Devilish]

Also, thinking of changing fuge/sump. There are some old pictures of the fuge/sump from previous posts but has changed considerably. Here is my thinking for the "New Great Plan".


This is a standard 10 gallon tank being used. As you can see, the red x's show that the skimmer has been removed (using an algae scrubber with pretty decent results) as well as the LR rubble, replaced with some Chaeto. The yellow shaded areas would move to the now fuge. This includes the overflow return, the sump pump to display and also scrubber pump (not pictured). In the green shaded area is where the return currently empties into. A wet/dry setup with approx. 10lbs of LR rubble. This would be removed and probably used on my cichild tank, minus the rubble of course. Should be able to split between "new" larger fuge and display. The sand and chaeto originally in right smaller chamber will then be moved to left larger chamber. This should increase size by a touch of 2x the old fuge. Oh, and I will split the return flow from the display to feed into "pump chamber" and the "fuge chamber" with a ball valve to control flow in fuge. Do you think that this is viable and beneficial?