Egg Crate

[phishx]

WTB or want to get some egg crate for the top of my tank... this wrasse tried to jump out of the bucket last night during acclimation... wanna make sure i can keep him in the tank

anyone know where i can get some egg crate? i dont think i have ever seen that stuff anywhere i can remember...
thx a bunch
-See

 

[Nick A]

Home Depot usually has it. Its in the flourescent lighting section. Just look in that area and you should be able to find it. I forgot the specific name of what its actually called other than egg crate, so youre just going to have to look for what it looks like,lol.

 

[Yinger]

home depot call it egg crate, but its also called a light diffuser

 

[phishx]

thx a bunch u guys... do you know how much if any this "egg crate / light diffuser" will actuall cut down on my lights?

 

[Yinger]

its about 10 dollars for a 4x2 sheet and its supposed to diffuse your light so supposedly it spreads it out more.

 

[phishx]

niiiiiiiiiiiiice
they have the white stuff and the silver coated stuff right?

 

[GTR]

I'm not sure how long the "plastic chrome" will hold up under the lights and humidity.

SteveU

 

[sarwa]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8988664#post8988664 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Yinger
its about 10 dollars for a 4x2 sheet

It will cost you about $10 if you buy the eggcrate from Home Depot's lighting section. They sell the same stuff in their ceiling tile section and it only goes for $6. I asked the manager and he can't explain the difference. They have different SKUs but similar manufacturer product number.

 

[Gooli]

funny you mentioned this...my wrasse jumped out of the nylon bag when i was aclimating him...i bought eggcrate from HD for $10 and covered the tank.

friendly advice...you can punch out bigger holes to allow more light to penetrate.

 

[RufRidn]

I was looking every where in home depot last time for it and every employee gave me a dumb look when I asked about it. Gotta go back and look again.

How does this stuff handle under the lights? Will it melt at all?

 

[NALCOMIS]

A friend of mine had a diamond goby that jumped into the hole of the egg crate... its side fins got stuck above the crate. when they came home they saw its tail in the water and its head was baked by the 400w halides.

 

[Yinger]

yeah, i wouldn't get the silver coating one either. It will eventually peel and fall into your tank

 

[phishx]

makes perfect sense Yinger...
gooliver does it really cut down on your lights that much to even consider having to make bigger holes?
*(i think i found a reason to get 250w's instead of these 175's )...*j/k

 

[Gooli]

it's not that noticeable but i did it anyways..cant hurt as long as the fish cant fit in the holes.

 

[phishx]

sounds good... just needed to make sure...

 

[laverda]

Acording to some tests I saw somewhere on RC egg crate does in fact reduce the light available consicerably. It is designed so you do not see/get direct light in your eyes. Meaning you lose a lot of the light going into your tank at angles off the side of your reflector. Some does reflect off the surface but the more it bounces around the less light you have. Here is what I did for my tank.

 

[phishx]

i like what i see, but i honestly have no idea what im looking at... how would i even construct something even close to that magnitude? please elaborate.

 

[laverda]

Here is the original thread on this stuff. I wanted to take full advantage of the light I have, so I did not want to use aluminum. Also I did not want to worry about getting them wet. I just cut some strips of acrylic, routered a lip down one side of it then glued the pieces together. To hold the mesh I just used 6 little pieces of acrylic, one on each end and 2 in the middle. The first one I use some red acrylic rod. for the second one I just used some of the same acrylic I made the frame with.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=817485&perpage=25&pagenumber=1