egg crates under lr

I have read that a lot of people use egg crate under thier lr, where can you get it, what does it look like, and do you epoxy your lr to it? thanks

 

It's called a light diffuser panel at home improvement stores. It is a series of 1/2 to 3/4 wide plastic squares.

Mixup your epoxy and place it on the egg crate so it will hold onto the egg crate and then place the rock on it firmly. Or place the epoxy on the rock and press the egg crate into the epoxy.

 

I use eggcrate in my 55g reef. I have heard some conflicting advice from knowledgeable people that it traps pockets of gunk/NA in the sand. Is this true? I had always wondered. I've never had an issue but seems like a valid point.

FYI I got mine at Home Depot in the lighting section it was called light diffuser as 2in10 said above.

 

That maybe it is resting on top of the sand. I would think there would be less of a problem if it is buried in the sand or suspended above it.

 

I did not epoxy the rock to the eggcrate, just took the time to be sure it seated firmly into the crate and then epoxied the rocks to each other to create a solid stack

 

i cut a piece of eggcrate into 4 strips 3 or 4 squares wide and put them on the bottom then laid the main piece on top of the strips raised off the bottom. this should minimize anything getting trapped in the squares.
Then I filled the whole thing with sand to the level of the crate. placed my rock, then covered the rest of the bottom with another 1" of sand to help lock the rock in.

 

whats the benefit of having egg crate under the LR? I've heard of this many times but never knew why.

 

The rock wont slide around, the crate locks it in place and keeps the rock separated from direct contact with the glass. And more importantly, your gobies and other digging friends cant dig out the support and cause a rockslide in your tank!

 

it keeps the rock more evenly stable. Like if a rock corner is hitting the bottom glass and then loaded up with more rock, the eggcrate distributes the weight evenly instead of the rock creating a pressure point directly on the glass bottom.

It's fairly hard to break a tank bottom but I use it for piece of mind. If you have diggers and they undermine the rock structure, it's best to have a little safety net also.

 

I don't see any worthwile benefit personally and don't use it for this.

no, it is more of a problem when it's on the bottom glass because the sand burrowing critters (snails) that clean your substrate don't get down into the little squares.

This would greatly mitigate my above comment. Nice idea.

The thinking is it distributes weight.

The rock won't slide around without the crate either. It takes some poor stacking for rock that's on the glass with a sand substrate to move.

If the rock is already touching glass, IMO, the idea of a critter destabilizing it is misplaced. This is why you put rock in first, then sand.

exactly... but if you have sand, I don't really see this as a real pressure point because the entirety of the rock is touching "bottom".

Not arguing against safety nets though. If it makes you feel more comfortable, go for it. Lots of folks do it.