Egg Crate & Plexiglass

[DT44]

Does anyone on here line the bottom of their tank with eggcrate or plexiglass before adding substrate & rock?

Any positives or negatives for this?

The tank is a 125 gallon with 3M T-grade colorquartz for substrate & TX Holey Rock of various sizes. Also not sure how deep we are gonna do the substrate yet.

 

[Toby_H]

I've used it once or twice... but do not use it in the vast majority of my tanks...

It will reduce the possibility of cracking the bottom due to the impact of a falling rock...

But water generally slows rocks down plenty enough to prevent a falling rock from causing any damage...

I've dropped flat rock/slate in tanks a few times that 'sliced' through the water and hit the bottom extremely hard... and nothing cracked. Since the first of those experiences I stopped using egg crate.

On one hand, it's cheap and easy to install, so many suggest "why not use it"...

Most Cichlids dig and exposed egg crate looks terrible, that's my reason...

 

[Tequila]

Hmmm.. Using eggcrate as some sort of padding, filler or base I have never done. I do how however use it to make under gravel filters with and it works great for that.

 

[DT44]

Yea this would be not so much for falling rock, but to help spread the weight of our rocks & give the bottom glass a little more protection (specifically from our centerpiece rock). The substrate will help but just want to get some advice on this from people with experience with this.

 

[oshp132]

I guess I am kinda cheap......I DON'T consider egg crate inexpensive....I priced it last week, and it was $12 for a 2x4 sheet......I think that is a lot for a little piece of plastic.