Opinions on using egg crate to support LR?

If you're going with a sand bottom then any debris will be on the surface of the sand for the most part. I have egg crate under the sand in my 29 and it works great to stabilize the LR.
Other methods include using a pvc frame and zip ties to hold the structure. Some use plastic or fiberglass dowels through the rock to hold things together. Snoop around on RC and there's oodles of build threads that show various methods.

 

My honest opinion is that it simply isn;t necessary. I have never read of anyone EVER (and I do a lot of reading) having their bottom crack/break due to a rock falling while the tank was full of water. Not sure how much would get trapped down there, but it stands to reason that it would impede any sand sifter's movement.

 

Have never used egg crate, never felt it was necessary.  We do however use zip ties to hold some rocks into place.  Our tank is deep by comparision to others so our rock structure is quite tall in areas and felt we needed to secure them somehow, didn't want the eel moving things around.  We like zip ties because all we need to do is cut them if we decide we want something moved.  The only downfall is at first you may notice them, but soon they will be covered with coraline and blend right in.

 

I'm not an architect or anything, but in my mind, since the rocks are rigid and they can't buckle on themselves (not sure if I am making sense here), I don't think that it will really give you much more stability/support than the sand itself will. Are you having problems currently with your bottom rocks shifting or anything?

 

You can make a PVC and eggcrate rack....and then zip tie some of your "not moving it" rock to that, and leave several open spots on the rack. Set rock on the open spots, but don't zip tie. Now you can move it around enough to change territories and such, or pull a rock out to frag....but stuff won't fall over.

 

Iam glad you brought this up Kylie, i was abotu to ask this same question. and atm im looking at my 90gal with everything waiting for me to start putting it together. so yes on the warm fuzzies.

 

One thing that I did ( Instead of putting all the live rock in the display cluttering up the tank), I put most of my live rock in a separate live well, or you could put it in your sump. That way you could use the more attractive peaces in the display and save more room on the bottom of the tank to place more LPS and other corals.
Just an idea. Check this place out http://www.marcorocks.com/index.asp...Category=8. If I ever redo my 120 this is what I will be using, the flat sided rock is a great idea!
Hope this helps.

 

My 1st set up i didn't use egg crate under my rocks and my sand sifter decided to dig out the right side of my tank. Half the rocks in tank shifted and rearranged that side. Since i set up my tank up after my move using EC my rocks have stayed put even with my SS digging.