Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I noticed a post by you over on RC about thinking about going with a bare bottom tank. I plan on setting my 55 back up with a bare bottom and having the dsb in the fuge. If you are thinking of going this route how do you intend to keep your rockwork stable on the glass? I've been looking into StarBoard to put on the bottom of the tank. I'll probably use a 1/2 inch sheet of it. It is that hard plastic that is used in cutting boards and also on boats. It will A. protect the glass bottom if anything should fall and B. Stabalize the rock becuase it isn't smooth. I was just curious if you were going to go along the same lines?

I was thinking od using 1-2 inch PVC pipe cut into 1/2-1 inch pieces ro stabilize it and epoxy the rocks, but I hadn't heard much about the Starboard.
Where can I buy it?
How much is it?
What sizes does it come in?

~Scott

Check this link out:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... =starboard

I have found it to be rather expensive. Do a search for King StarBoard and it will give you a list of suppliers that carry it. I know West Marine has it. I might go the PVC route also. I just had some odd shaped rocks that i kept stable with my sand and now not having any could be a problem.

Are you going to have a spray bar to keep stuff from collecting behind the rocks? Are you going to silicone the Starboar to the bottom to keep stuff from collecting in the seams?

Well I just ordered the Black Starboard yesterday. I hope everything will make it another week in a tank with just powerheads on it. I plan to have a powerhead go across the back bottom of the tank. Not as a spray bar but just blowing towards the bottom to keep things suspended. I want to design the rock formations so that i can reach down with a baster and spray any dead spots that may form. I figure why not give this a try. I started getting nasty stuff growing all along the the sand and where the rocks met the sand and had a hard time position my powerheads to get good current without blowing sand all around.

Where did you order it from? How much? Can you have it cut to the size that yoy need or did you just buy a whole sheet?

There is a link to a site on that page that i posted where you can get them cut to size. I have no Idea what the cost for something like that is. I just ordered a sheet big enought for my tank and I'm going to cut it. I hope it gets here soon because my tank has been down for over a week now. For a larger size tank you are probably going to pay what you would pay for live sand. I guess the trade off is not having to buy the the inverts to take care of the sand and the ability to have more current without making a mess of the tank. If you have a place like West Marine or any boat shop over there in Mobile you should be able to go there and order it. I hope it works well. I am going to try to get zoos and other polyps growing on it.

Scott,

Well I put my order in on Sunday and I recieved my sheet of Black Starboard Yesterday. It may cost more to have it custom cut and it was really easy to cut. I used a hand saw since i dont' have any powertools. It looks good and i hope it does the job that i want done. Once the coraline grows over it and zoos and other polyps are on it I think it will look very good. I hope it is eash to keep clean with the extra current i hope to have. Now all i need is some 400w mh in the tank and a calc reactor.