:)

I would be worried that it concentrates more pressure in one spot then normal and cracks my bottom ..
I used egg crate this tank and I like how it helps ..

Although I like the idea because it also stops the rock from sinking in the sand as it tends to so over time ..
 
I think the bottom plate will disperse the psi. The structure will be covered by sand if it was on top and fish digging underneath would shift it is my guess


Looks awesome I might need to do something like that if I ever get my dream tank


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I am an idiot... for some reason i was thinking that was his plan for the tank bottom... it did not even dawn on me that was a bottom plate.. lol

Pre coffee thinking ..
 
A guy named Mark Peterson from Utah has been pushing this idea for years. Most comlaints were with turbo snails not being able to make the climb after falling. It certainly looks appealing and has good benefits for flow and detrius maintenance.
 
When I set up the 400g in early 2011, Wes came over and helped me create the acrylic support system that was buried in the sandbed. No-one ever saw it, and I never got around to writing the supporting article. At the Aquascaping presentation I did with Scott Fellman, I did show images of this rack to the audience. This time, I'm taking better pictures and will do a full write up.

What you see is a teaser shot of the project. The foundation rock is supported on acrylic rods that are glued into a full sheet of 3/8" acrylic. The pressure is equalized across the panel. Once water and sand is in the tank, you'll never see it. The rockwork is very shallow at the moment because it is the foundation layer; the rest of the rocks are in the 215g with corals all over them. These will be stacked on top of the foundation. Putting rock on the sandbed only works initially, but can shift over time due to flow and livestock interaction. Placing rock on the bottom of the tank and adding sand merely wastes 3-4" of rock buried beneath the substrate. This way I can have a DSB and my rockwork won't move, no matter how many cucumbers process detritus beneath the structure.
 
The sandbed should be 4" deep, maybe slightly less.
 
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