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Plastic Cutting Board for Glass Tank Bottom?

magnetar68

magnetar68

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I read about people buying custom plastic cutting boards from plasticcuttingboards.com in order to protect the bottom of their glass tanks. I am a little nervous about glass in earthquake country.

Anyone know anyone who tried this? Is it really add some protection in an earthquake or if you drop a heavy rock? (The boards are food safe, meeting NSF requirements).

I can get a 59x17x3/8" board for about $65.

https://www.plasticcuttingboards.com
 
Sure, give me something else I need to worry about now! If you aren't bare bottom I wonder if sand would catch part of the impact? I've seen people do starboard (tan colored HDPE) to get the color of sand on a BB tank. Not for this purpose, but my 170 has a REALLY thick bottom so I've never worried about it, the cubes (tanks in waiting) have PVC bottoms, and the big tank has what I think is HDPE in the center (came with it used).

If you want to support a local source you could get a sheet cut to size at TAP Plastics. Those guys are great to work with, will cut it to size only charging you for the material you get, etc. I got some acrylic there recently and knowing that HDPE is a bit cheaper I suspect you'd be at the same price point.
 
I bought a sheet of 1/8 PVC from tap plastics and epoxied sand to it.
Similar idea, but a bit fancier.
Gives it a slightly textured look. Looks way better than a mirrored bottom before things grow.
Snails seem to like it.

But - I have an issue with the corners popping up a bit, and crud getting underneath.
 
rygh said:
I bought a sheet of 1/8 PVC from tap plastics and epoxied sand to it.
Similar idea, but a bit fancier.
Gives it a slightly textured look. Looks way better than a mirrored bottom before things grow.
Snails seem to like it.

But - I have an issue with the corners popping up a bit, and crud getting underneath.
Click to expand...
I wonder if the thickness had much to do with that. The OP referenced material 3x that thickness.
 
Bruce Spiegelman said:
Save the money on the plastic and have Jester6 do your rock work in one connected piece. That solves the issue and you get a great rockscape.
Click to expand...
That’s what I did. Jester6 is great.

I doubt a rock tumbling to the glass under water would be able to break the glass even with bare-bottom. If you have sand, then I’d say no chance of it breaking the glass. More likely to scratch the side panels.

What you should worry about with earthquakes is the motion of the whole tank causing sheer stress and breaking the tank side seams or collapsing the stand. Plus guaranteed to slosh some water out, possibly a lot, especially for rimless.
 
Fun video on the strength of glass bottom


And this is a crappy thin little tank. I have zero worry about the damage from my rock topple over and hitting the sand.

Side to side earthquake movement that potentially cause the water to move tank off the stand would be a bigger worry imo.
 
Well that video is a bit misleading because the first rock on the glass is pretty darn flat, if a pointed piece was going down him standing on it like that might just break it.
 
Tempered glass is incredibly strong especially on its face but most tanks do not have tempered glass. As stated above though, I’d be more worried of other failures before being worried that a rock may fall and break the glass.
 
Paying @jestersix is one option, he does great work and can make what you have in your head appear in your tank.
Another option is to do it yourself. Not too hard at all. Takes some time.
A third interesting option is to organize a group buy for cement and possibly rocks as well, and ask @glee to find a meeting location for us to have a rock sculpture building party as a club!
 
Remember the last time we had a club event where we tried to make rock scape with cement and how glorious that turned out? :)

No way I would ever try to build this myself

20161024_232421-jpg.5821
 
YES I DO remember, but back then I had never tried it before and mixed it WAY too wet so nothing dried quickly enough. I've played with it much more since then. Really pretty easy and fun.
 
Coral reefer said:
YES I DO remember, but back then I had never tried it before and mixed it WAY too wet so nothing dried quickly enough. I've played with it much more since then. Really pretty easy and fun.
Click to expand...
Yeah I felt that I had similar issues, not sure if it was too wet or too dry (probably the latter for me) and while it did stick and harden, it was not particularly strong and I was able to break off pieces without much force, and this was smaller rocks too, I could only imagine with larger rocks the weight of the rock itself probably would cause it to snap off.
 
I can probably help people out when I put together my own rock scape sometime in the near future. When all depends on when my office remodel is complete. I've done a fair number of these in the past.
 
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