How much sand do I need?

[dine]

i personally have never done the pvc thing. with that being said, of the few people i know that have, every single one said they would not do it again. some said it was unsightly, others said it housed waste that made keeping paramiters in check difficult. While i cant personally verify any of this i can say that pvc is simply not needed. nearly all of us have LR structures directly on the glass (or on eggcrate) with good flow and no rock slides.

if you feel like you MUST put something under the rock id suggest egg create but if it was me id go directly on glass

 

[frantz]

just that if you have flow that is low in the tank you'll experience more erosion of the sand and potential exposure of the pipes. I like to have some of my pumps running some water flow low to blow out the dirt and avoid dead spots I move the pumps from time to time, but it does move the sand.

 

[rdnelson]

Did the PVC on my first tank and hated it. Rock work was not stable, the sand under the rocks could not be vacuumed and just wasn't happy with it. This time a round, I put all my rock work in, then laid the sand around it and then added water. I love it. So much easier.

 

[jef4y]

I've done egg crate on the bottom of my 2 tanks and then "ground" the rocks down until they were on the egg crate through the substrate. I can't say there is any benefit to it. Then again, I have had 4" sand beds on both my last tanks.

On my 150 I'll go with 1.5" and the rocks on the bottom. I'll still probably go with the sand first and then the rock, twisting, pushing, grinding it down to the bottom, but no plastic or anything under them. I just don't see the point/benefit to it.

If you're worried about a rock-slide, drill & peg the rocks using fiberglass rods. I have a "teepee" built out of 3 rock columns in my 60 that aren't going anywhere.

 

[eagle9252]

<p style="text-align:left"><p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-size: 13px">When I did my 75 I did the complete bottom with egg crate. I was told to remove it as it would harbor bad stuff and hinder in future cleaning. </span></span>
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<p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-size: 13px">I was going to use starboard or HDPE to protect the glass from the rocks but everyone said it was a waste. It would not cost me anything as I can get scraps from work and it will raise up your rocks some and be a solid surface instead of the holes. </span></span>
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<p style="text-align:left"><span style="font-family: Calibri"><span style="font-size: 13px">I liked the spin the rock around method as it puts sand under the high spots but any goby will dig it back out so it&#8217;s a catch 22.</span></span>