Battling Detritus. Requesting advice for elevating rockwork above bottom

[serwobow]

Being stuck at home, and staring at my tank for substantial periods of time, I have come to notice how much crap accumulates on the bottom of the tank, and I have also come to find out that it is difficult to remove. I would like to permanently elevate my rockwork an inch or so above the bottom of the tank to make for easier removal of this detritus. Has anyone done this? What strategies would you recommend?

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

PVC frame, acrylic rods or thick glass shelf. The latter will create a floating aquascape.

 

[coralfishreef]

With sand beds, I’ve used PVC pipes, eggcrate, and most recently STAX rock. Is your tank bare bottom?

 

[serwobow]

With sand beds, I’ve used PVC pipes, eggcrate, and most recently STAX rock. Is your tank bare bottom?

Yes it is a bare bottom

 

[serwobow]

I like the stax rock idea. I wonder if I could just put a couple of those down, and set my exist rocks on top of them? That might look pretty natural. I think the PVC or eggcrate will be too hard to hide and won't have the look I want.

 

[ReeferSutherland]

On Instagram there is a wicked good floating reef by coral_fish_zoa. He has a post with instructions on how to build

 

[coralfishreef]

I like the stax rock idea. I wonder if I could just put a couple of those down, and set my exist rocks on top of them? That might look pretty natural. I think the PVC or eggcrate will be too hard to hide and won't have the look I want.

The STAX pieces that I received were various heights between approximately 3/4-1” and 1 1/4”-1 1/2”. The height of a piece looks uniform throughout. My sand-bed is about 1 1/2 - 2” high. I stacked and cemented 3 pieces to raise some of the rock structures off of the sand bed to allow for increased flow. The STAX “feet” sit flat on the glass.

 

[FishieBusiness]

I used the egg crate method in my sump the raise up the skimmer. Crates also will disperse the weight of aquascape evenly.

 

[FishieBusiness]

You can even sand and polish the surface of the crates that would be visible.

 

[serwobow]

On Instagram there is a wicked good floating reef by coral_fish_zoa. He has a post with instructions on how to build

That is an amazing floating reef!