Starboard vs. Egg Crate Lighting Panel for bare bottom?

[Julius Chen]

I started my 120G setup with used sand. It has only been 4 days and I am already fed up with sand blowing all over whenever I tried to clean/siphon. Before it is too late, going bare bottom this weekend.

Any thought pros and cons using egg crate lighting panel from Homedepot? I noticed most online discussion is about using Starboard, while egg crate is common in LFS corral tanks.

Also, if using Starboard, Tap Plasitcs has choice between white and seafoam (kind of yellow tone). Will white color sheet LONG TERM less likely to leach than the colored sheet? I am waiting for the manufacturer King Plastics to answer.

[Meshmez]

i dont think you want to use egg crate on the bottom of your display tank. it will end up trapping junk, and probably not look so great.

Starboard seems to be the way to go unless you want just glass. as far as i know, the color shouldnt matter.

[Crispy001]

Natural hdpe is white, so white would be the best from a leach perspective. That said, leaching is so slow it may as well be insignificant. The plasticizer that comes out will be independent of color.

[maddhugan]

starboard is used when you go bare bottom on a tank. eggcrate could be used to lift up corals from detritus matter. what do you want out of your tank?
a bare bottom tank or a frag tank?
not sure what you want.

[maddhugan]

for a bare bottom tank in my opinion even starboard is not needed. once the coralline algae takes over it doesn't matter. ppl use starboard fearing that if a rock falls then it might break the bottom glass. bottom glass might be tempered and even the non tempered are strong enough. The buoyancy will prevent it from breaking. buoyancy dictates a sluggish fall will very less impact. That being said don't drop a huge rock. haha
best of luck
Madhu

[maddhugan]

cLets just say a sharp sand particle stands in between starboard and bottom glass and you drop a huge rock. The likelihood of breaking the bottom glass is the same with or without a starboard. The sharp impact might crack the bottom glass. Although very unlikely (DUE TO BOUYANCY of water itself) it might happen and starboard really doesn't help distribute the momentum evenly across the bottom surface area. The momentum transfer will occur.
I would say just go bare bottom glass

[maddhugan]

my experience with starboard is that it traps particles and creates nasty stuff. Just don't do anything thing, just leave the glass alone. " More action by inaction." A Buddhist philosophy. haha, that's why I don't work that much anymore. haha

[DivingTheWorld]

I used Starboard in mine because I was planning to do a thin sand layer. But I was also annoyed by the continued blowing of sand so ended up sucking it all out. My next SPS tank, I will go BB with nothing (starboard, egg crate, etc.).

If you definitely want to use something, I'd go starboard over egg crate. It looks much better and you can have it cut to your exact tank dimensions so you don't really notice it.

[maddhugan]

Yes, that's what I have done on few tanks

[juniorrocketdad]

Starboard is great but I recommend siliconeing it to the bottom so nothing gets under it

[Julius Chen]

Originally Posted by juniorrocketdad

Starboard is great but I recommend siliconeing it to the bottom so nothing gets under it

Interesting idea...Will starboard be flat enough so silicon at the bottom will seal and keep detritus out? Should I try to glue the whole 4'x2' area, or glue around the 1" band around its edges?

I also heard the starboard is supposed to leave the silicon of the fish tank itself exposed, so starboard will not damage the seal.

Here is what I got from King Plastics: " There will be no leaching into salt water no matter what color of the King StarBoard® you use."

I don't have the gut to use bare glass. Has to have something to prevent falling rocks breaking the glass. I think I may go for 3/8" thickness instead of 1/4", hope thicker sheet will be more rigid and hence better at distribute the impact force.

[maddhugan]

Originally Posted by Julius Chen

Interesting idea...Will starboard be flat enough so silicon at the bottom will seal and keep detritus out? Should I try to glue the whole 4'x2' area, or glue around the 1" band around its edges?

I also heard the starboard is supposed to leave the silicon of the fish tank itself exposed, so starboard will not damage the seal.

Here is what I got from King Plastics: " There will be no leaching into salt water no matter what color of the King StarBoard® you use."

I don't have the gut to use bare glass. Has to have something to prevent falling rocks breaking the glass. I think I may go for 3/8" thickness instead of 1/4", hope thicker sheet will be more rigid and hence better at distribute the impact force.

I agree with you. we all need the psychological comfort, so we have starboard on the bottom. lol. I used starboard in the past, and they are still there on those tanks. However, There are some new tanks I started few months ago and I don't have anything in the bottom of those tanks. Just the glass on which the coralline algae started growing.