Black Eggcrate Leeching

[MD Ocean Girl]

Looks awesome! How well does the light penetrate down to the lowest layers? Any issues with shading the lower frags?

 

[Eastamherstbias]

It is in tiers (like mountain farming) so the plugs are not shaded by each other. The whole process ran me a total of $70. (scrap acrylic/rods), (2) 1/2 inch drill bit/acrylic glue/fine tooth hack saw. The drilling was the annoying part.

 

[solRNY]

very nice frag racks! keep us up todate on how it performs with the algae

 

[MD Ocean Girl]

I really like it! I don't have any issues with algae growing on the white eggcrate in my frag tank...maybe I'm just really lucky. lol. Definitely keep us updated, as I might end up trying out your design and build if it works really well!

 

[Eastamherstbias]

Thank you, I was shooting from the hip on this one since I needed to get the eggcrate out before it killed the coral frags. There is still a little algae on the frags but the snails are removing it. I am happy with the design. Now I just need it to show some growth.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

fwiw

fwiw

there's white eggcrate in my reef aqurium system.

I hope the acrylic solves the problem for you. I'm interested in hearing the results.

 

[MD Ocean Girl]

I'm sure that once you get your algae under control, you'll get some growth. Patience is definitely the key. Any chance some of the algae growth was due to elevated phosphate/nitrates in the tank? I can't remember if you had posted any test numbers.....

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

believe me....

believe me....

if I find out eggcrate is leaching something I'll be the first to yank mine out.

However... so far.... so good here... after many many years.

 

[Johnny C]

There's a big difference between white and black acrylic. IMO black tends to have more algae issues than white. Nice racks... no pun intended. :lol:

 

[sandworm]

i had white in my tank for about two months, when i pulled it out during my upgade the top half was coated with coraline, the verry bottom at the sand line had some green cyno on it, for me i think it was a flow issue.i've also used black with the same results

 

[Eastamherstbias]

All of my parameters are good. No problems. I have an Mp10 in the 40BR turned on yellow 90% so flow was not an issue. I think I just received some black egg crate that needed to be soaked in vinegar for a while. I am happy with the clear acrylic. We will see how it goes.

 

[tmz]

The plexiglass racks stay free of algae vs the eggcrate I was using but nothing leached as far as I know. If there was something the vinegar and bleach baths would have removed it. I wouldn't plan on any light penetration through the acrylic rack as they tend to encrust with coraline.

 

[GMaquarium]

I didn't read the entire thread (hard to read on a cell phone screen), maybe this was mentioned. There was a study done some years ago that showed darker surfaces will grow more algae in comparison with light or white. Just a thought.