New Tank questions

[Rjohn]

I have a new (to me) tank and I have a question or two before I start the move from my 72 bow to the 75 rectangle.

At one point, there were several people who felt strongly about putting egg crate on the bottom of the tank to help stabilize the rock. I have some egg crate I am not using and I am wondering if I should do this or not?

I thought about trying sliders underneath my stand to see if I can make it at least minimally mobile. It would be nice to be able to paint behind it, if nothing else. Thoughts?

Sand or crushed coral, or a combination? Deep or shallow? Opinions?

I am just trying to rectify some of the regrets I have had with my current setup. I would rather not repeat past mistakes either.

I would appreciate any advice that you can offer on moving fish, corals, etc. to a new(ish) environment.

[victoly]

If you want, maybe attaching crate the the bottom of your base LR pieces would achieve what you want. I'd be hesitant to use it throughout the sand bed because it seems it might prevent some of the biological action from happening (specifically the CUC from turning over the sand).

sliders, seems more risky than it's worth IMO.

i prefer a finer sand, as do many bottom dwelling creatures (especially wrasses)

i prefer shallow, it's hard to get the DSB effects in a DT, so you may as well go shallow and make cleanup easy on yourself.

[Timfish]

I've used egg crate under rocks before and it's worked out pretty good. Problem is if you use just a thin layer of sand, about 1/2", like I prefer it doesn't take much for the egg crate to be noticeable even if you just use it under the rock. I see no use for it to be used anywhere else than just under the rock unless you are setting up an Jaubert system.

[+brian.srock]

I plan on using eggcrate on the bottom and back wall to secure my rocks but like Tim said I won't be laying it across the whole bottom just where the rocks will be.