Rubber padding under rocks?

[Reefer911]

I got a couple of huge rocks for my build. One is a carib sea 24” arch and the other is an 18” plateau. I love these pieces because they are gonna make it pretty easy on me doing the rock scape but their weight has me thinking.

Does anyone put rubber or neoprene pads down as a footing where the rocks will be sitting on the glass? I’m talking about small rubber discs or squares just large enough to pad the spot where the rocks will be in contact with the bottom glass.

 

[StatelineReefer]

Egg crate is your best option. Are you going bare bottom or sandy bottom?

 

[Spare time]

You could also attatch some large sqaure frag plus underneath the spot where the rock would touch the glass to distribute the weight some more. But like the above stated, eggcrate was the first thing that came to mind

 

[RedoubtReef]

Maybe some small starboard squares epoxied as 'feet' to the structure?

 

[vtecintegra]

I always use a sheet of acrylic or hdpe.

 

[Reefer911]

Egg crate is your best option. Are you going bare bottom or sandy bottom?

Going with sand

 

[StatelineReefer]

Going with sand

Then definitely eggcrate, as it will be hidden by your sand layer. You may just want to eggcrate or starboard the entire bottom for more bacterial surface area anyways.

 

[Reefer911]

Ok thanks, I’ll have to look up starboard. Never heard of it

 

[Reefer911]

This is what I came up with but I want to ask and make sure this won’t be a detritus trap. Although now that I think about it my conches will be able to dig around in each little square

Let me know what you all think of the rock scape as well. It’s just 4 pieces and took me 5 minutes but I’m super happy with it. I just hope this will be adequate in providing spots to hide. I’m not sure if fish need to be able to go inside a cave like structure or just go behind a big rock to feel safe. I’ve got the latter covered. And I could place a cave in the open spot but I hope I don’t have to. I like the look as it is.

 

[RedoubtReef]

yeah, that's what I don't like about egg crate. If you make smaller 'feet' epoxied to the contact points of the rock you take up less sand real estate and have a way to fully stir/siphon when needed. You can also camouflage the feet by gluing sand/rock to them so they are not as noticeable.

 

[1ocean]

love the rock art....

 

[Reefer911]

yeah, that's what I don't like about egg crate. If you make smaller 'feet' epoxied to the contact points of the rock you take up less sand real estate and have a way to fully stir/siphon when needed. You can also camouflage the feet by gluing sand/rock to them so they are not as noticeable.

I'm thinking about getting in there with some tin snips and trimming it up some. I don't think I will remove the rocks though. I had help installing them due to weight.
Regarding siphoning, the egg crate is only about 1/4" tall so I'm sure I'll be able to create enough turbulence to lift the sand up. Stirring will be a different story though

 

[Reefer911]

love the rock art....

Thanks! I do too. Those pieces really made it easy. That was the only logical way to do it and I got it right on the first attempt.

 

[sphinx15]

I just cut small pads of eggcrate for where my rocks rest on the glass; they are ~3-4" in diameter if I remember correctly, no issues to report. As long as you're not leaving the whole bottom covered, I wouldn't even worry about trying to clean/stir the sand in the eggcrate. Worst case, it'll just harden and turn into more rock...ask me how I know

Rockwork looks fantastic by the way!

 

[Reefer911]

I just cut small pads of eggcrate for where my rocks rest on the glass; they are ~3-4" in diameter if I remember correctly, no issues to report. As long as you're not leaving the whole bottom covered, I wouldn't even worry about trying to clean/stir the sand in the eggcrate. Worst case, it'll just harden and turn into more rock...ask me how I know

Rockwork looks fantastic by the way!

Thanks! I have to agree!

Making small pads was my initial thought but I was short on time because my friend was coming over to help. I’ll definitely get in there and trim it up but I’ll leave it as one piece though

 

[Reefer911]

I trimmed it up.

 

[sphinx15]

Look good!

 

[92Miata]

The only real time you need to worry about rocks on glass is barebottom tanks and rocks that are high falling. Glass has a significantly higher hardness than aragonite, and once the tank is full of water, rock is not significantly heavy, and point pressures are much lower.


If it makes you feel better though, do it up.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Are you worried about the weight, or the stability?

The tank bottom can hold hundreds of lbs of water. Another 30lbs in rock isn’t going to make a difference. And your design looks pretty stable. I wouldn’t think anything of putting that structure directly on the glass.

Aquarium glass is way harder to break than you would think. And if the glass is on a solid wood base like plywood, then you could pretty much drop bowling balls onto the bare bottom all day without affecting it.

 

[Reefer911]

Not the weight overall as I know the aquarium is designed for it. I just didn’t like so much weight resting in such a small area, where the rocks actually sit on the glass.