Using milk crate instead of base rock

I see some people use milk crate instead of a LOT base rock to create a big rock wall. I have a 72 gal tank and it won't quite fit a milk crate in. I'm gonna to try to use the soda crate, maybe one or two of them in place of base rock. Would that work? What do you think?

 

I personally don't like the idea, the rock isn't just for appearances, it provides lots of biological filtration too, shorting yourself on the rock just means that you'll be able to keep less fish because you have less filtration available.

Actually I guess if you already have enough rock, 1.5-2lbs per gallon of water volume, and you still want to increase the size of your rock structures and the plastic is basically food-safe and won't leach out chemicals over the course of a few years then I don't see why not.

 

I would be worried that the plastics will leach the dyes into the water. Rock is used as a breeding ground for bacterial colonies due to the porous nature of the rock. You really won't get the surface area to cultivate the colonies with this. I may be wrong though.

 

i liked the idea of a bioball structure to support the rock work..

 

if your l,ooking for support of your live rock i would just increase you sand bed . the deeper it is lesslikely you will have rocks shifting around . . i use deep sand bed anyway . what do others think ?

 

I don't see a real problem using it, but I think aesthetically it won't look good. Another method commonly used is to use pvc pipe and build little chairs and such to support the rock. But what I would do is if you can't afford the rock you want, I would use what I had to make a smaller structure, then slowly add to it as you can.

 

I spotted a milk crate under a hedge once
I thought I had found a cows nest

Steve

 

It most likely won't hurt anything but I wouldn't put it in my tank unless it's food grade plastic. I keep my top off water in a cheap brown trash can that I think is leaching stuff into my water so I'm on the lookout for a food grade container.