Bling bling

be VERY careful putting eggcrate (in large quantities like completely covering the bottom) in your. Some brands/types of it are Algae Magnets. It's assumed that the plastic is leaching out phosphates. As an example here's a frag rack I made out of egg-crate. Take note that I painted this one with Krylon Fusion to try and seal/lock any phosphates inside but apparently it didn't work.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...e/IMG_6719.jpg

YIKES! :surprise:

wow!! and that was the only spot growing gha in your tank?

Wow! Thanks for the heads up!! Need to rethink putting crate in my tank then!

Apparently there are a few different "compositions" that go into making egg-crate. I think one of them is more of an "Acrylic" material than plastic so that's probably better.

No it wasn't the only spot. I had 2 egg-crate racks and they were the only places that had more than just a pinch of it. It was obvious even to people that knew nothing about reefing or GHA that the "racks" were growing it very well. Once I took all of the egg-crate out the GHA was gone in a few weeks from every where. It couldn't be just a huge coincidence.

At home depot it can be found in the same section as the ceiling tiles. (Found this out when I couldn't find it in the lighting dept.) As stated earlier they have white & chrome. It's also known as light diffuser which is why clear wouldn't be a likely option.

Tons of people use egg crate for frag racks with no phosphate/algae issues, I'd be inclined to think that's a less common issue than moreso. I've had my rack in my tank for about 2 months and all it has is coraline algae patches.

Yeah, clear would defeat the purpose of what eggcrate is meant to do.

OP could probably manufacture some out of acrylic strips if it is really important.

This "chrome" eggcrate sounds a little fishy. If it is a layer of replective paint, I wouldn't stick that in an aquarium.

My understanding is that black and chrome are both "coated" and I've seen chrome cracking a peeling first hand. I've not seen black doing that but I have chrome.