Eggcrate under Sand?

[scottdwh]

I saw in a few tank builds that people would put eggcrate on the bottom of their tank and then cover with sand. What is the reason for this? Will it mess up any kind of sand burrowing things like Nass. snails or sand sifting starfish?

[TheHumbleLobste]

Its usually used to disperse the weight of a large amount of live rock so it doesn't cause a crack or break in the bottom of your glass. And as far as messing with sand sifters, I've never had problems with things like my watchman, but not sure about snails and stars.

[Slphappy]

Usually, when I see eggcrate on the bottom of a tank it's to help get the live rock off the glass bottom of the tank. To help support the LR structure so flow can get under and behind the LR.

I've also seen it used to support the live rock and help alleviate fears that the LR might crack the bottom of the tank.

[scottdwh]

Thanks for the replies. I am planning on putting it in my tank, but there is only going to be probably about an 1" of sand above it and my snails love to dig down in the sand.

[snorvich]

Should not be a problem.

[Mr31415]

I added it to help prevent a crack if a piece of LR is dropped whilst aquascaping or when a fish / invert pushes it over.