Eggcrate?

[MargieInAZ]

Where's the best place to buy eggcrate? Home Depot?
I want to use it for the top of my tank. Right now I have glass, and it's getting a little warm. I thought I'd switch to eggcrate and throw a fan on it.
Also, any tips cutting it to fit around pipes, etc.?
Any other helpful hints? Is there anything to look for specifically?
Does anyone have a photo of their setup?
Thanks!
Margie

 

[lockekeyy]

Hi Margie,
Nice to see another person from AZ on here. Home Depot is a great place to get the eggcrate... it's in the lighting section, about $12 for a 2x4ft. It might be a lil hard to cut with scissors... I used a pair of pliers that had a cutting portion or just use wire cutters if you have some, and is pretty easy to cut into the shape you want (ie: around pipes)
Allen

 

[jamest0o0]

You can get it at home depot, ask for light diffuser. If you say egg crate they will most likely just look at you like you're crazy. It is pretty easy to cut as well.

 

[MIIKE]

Home Depot or Lowes is the place to get it. They come in 24" x 48" sheets and its called "light diffusor" (sp). I believe I paid $5 or $6 for the sheet.

I used a pair of utility scissors to cut it. I also used a good quality " gloss black spray paint" to paint mine black. I used gloss paint because it makes cleaning very simple and neat (just hose off, shake dry), flat paint tends to make things stick a little more.

my $0.02
Mike

 

[singold]

I used tin-snips to cut mine. Best way to shape it to size is to simply measure inside perimeter of tank where it will go, slide this in then just look at how much space to cut out to accomodate concaves to allow for hoses, etc. What I did for these small cut-out sections was count number of individual squares on large eggcrate piece itself for small cut out sections & went from there. Very simple procedure really once you start to measure and estimate sections to cut.

 

[mitremark]

has anyone tried mirrow light diffusor?

 

[EllieSuz]

The best tool is a pair of side cutters. However, there are a couple of draw backs to using egg crate. The first is it inhibits light (it's why they call it a light diffuser). I tried to get around that problem by cutting a large rectangle out of the middle and putting a piece of acrylic over it. This didn't work very well either, the acrylic piece got steamed up. Then I lost two fish that jumped through the egg crate; a juvenile Clown and a Diamond Goby. That's when I built the following cover:

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk179/EllieSuz/TankCover.jpg

This was the best and final solution for me. Hope this helps.