Egg Crate Frag Racks and Green Hair Algae

[geckodty]

I have a question for everyone who uses egg crate for frag racks.

 

Is there any chance it (the white plastic material) is leaching something in to the water?

 

I have a 90 g with no algea to speak of anywhere in the tank. I mean none. None in the rock work, none in the substrate, none on the tank walls.

 

But for some reason I always have a layer of green hair algae on my frag racks in the tank.

 

The frag discs end up with algae on them from the rack. As soon as I move the frag down to the rock, the algae goes away.

 

I originally thought maybe the racks prevented proper water movemnt near the frags so I made sure a power head pointed at the racks.

 

Still no change.

 

The snails, crabs and fish all have equal access to all areas of the tank including the racks so I do not think this is the issue.

 

Has anyone else noticed this? Is there some other mateial I can use for frag racks?

 

Thanks for any feedback.

 

Bruce

[lanman]

I have a question for everyone who uses egg crate for frag racks.

 

Is there any chance it (the white plastic material) is leaching something in to the water?

 

I have a 90 g with no algea to speak of anywhere in the tank. I mean none. None in the rock work, none in the substrate, none on the tank walls.

 

But for some reason I always have a layer of green hair algae on my frag racks in the tank.

 

The frag discs end up with algae on them from the rack. As soon as I move the frag down to the rock, the algae goes away.

 

I originally thought maybe the racks prevented proper water movemnt near the frags so I made sure a power head pointed at the racks.

 

Still no change.

 

The snails, crabs and fish all have equal access to all areas of the tank including the racks so I do not think this is the issue.

 

Has anyone else noticed this? Is there some other mateial I can use for frag racks?

 

Thanks for any feedback.

 

Bruce

 

Toothbrush...

 

I'm not sure why, but I get more there than anywhere else, too.

 

bob

[reefhunter]

I dont get algae on my eggcrate... ?

[lanman]

once you get coralline on the egg-crate, no more algae problems.

 

bob

[Jon Lazar]

I've noticed more nusiance algae on my eggcrate too. I assume its because:

 

- The eggcrate is suspended close to the water surface which makes it closer to the lights and provides much more light for the algae to grow. We put our acros towards the top of the tank to enhance growth; but it also works for algae.

 

- Eggcrate high up in the tank is harder for hermits and snails to get to.

 

- Grazing fish may be less comfortable swimming close to the surface to get at the algae on the frag racks.

[Jager]

some people have tested and found higher levels of P04 in their tanks with the frag racks made out of eggcrate, however saying that it is leeching is hard to quantify because their tanks were full if fish/ corals etc, and while p04 was undetectable before it may have just been another nutrient uptake mechanism using the P04 until the algae started moving onto the eggcrate.

 

FWIW i have always seen algaes growing on eggrate due to its lower flow areas on certain parts on the squares and a high surface area overall. emerald crabs seem to be very good at keeping it under control.

[jason the filter freak]

if you check out this months tank of the month you'll notice if you look extra careful that all of the rock is supported on egg crate. That tank has not had a bit of trouble with hair algae

[reefmontalvo]

Im thinking because the egg crate is white the light is reflecting a bit higher than the rocks in the tank or any other surface partly because the other surfaces are absorbing the light and not reflecting it back. I noticed the same issue when I started my 20g frag tank I only had algae growth on the racks and no were else.

 

I agree once the coraline starts to creep it was over the egg crate thus removing the white reflective surface yoru aglae problems will go away.

[khalid]

When I had a frad tank running and was using eggcrate I was fetting a lot of hair algae as well and did some searching on the net and found a lot were saying that it leaches phosphate.

[Jager]

there is black eggcrate you can get that helps cut down on that, but either way short of cutting acrylic for a rack eggcrate gets the job done.

[bbyatv]

I found this link very helpful.

 

http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?...mp;topic=9750.0

 

Look at the last few posts on the first page.

 

Bruce

[bbyatv]

Here is some Acrylic Eggcrate:

 

http://www.adliteplastics.com/acryliceggcrate.htm

 

Bruce

[treesprite]

I painted some with Krylon Fusion - the stuff painted black got no algae, the stuff left white did.... go figure, light attracts algae growth.