Egg crate top

[mutts]

A few months ago I changed to an egg crate top from a glass top. I spray painted the egg crate black, because it looked better on the tank. Well I have noticed that the egg crate is making my tank darker, see the pictures below. And I don

[dakar]

Unfortuantely, while painting it black may look more appealing that's where a lot of your light is stopping, of course black tends not to reflect light even with a 'gloss' finish quite a bit gets absorbed. If left the unpainted white color it would still block some of the light but it would reflect a lot more than the black.

Options - if you need the eggcrate to keep critters in the tank;

1 - Eggcrate is also availavbe in a semi-metailc looking silver finish for a couple of bucks more, that might my more pleasing to the eyes than the white.

2 -go with the unpainted white stuff.

[mutts]

I guess i will be going with white if i can't find the metalic, you said the white will still block some light, is there anything else that will less light blockage and still have good gas exchange, or is this just somthing i'm going to have to deal with?

[Dirt4dinner]

I was at someones house recently and he had a pretty sweet setup. He bought the smallest PVC he could find, and made a frame that fit around the top of his tank, then he took fishing line and wrapped it tight from end to end, then wrapped it again from front to back and it made a mesh cover. PVC is not that attractive...but you could paint that black! The fishing line doesn't block any light at all, and the whole thing is cheap to make for sure. Good luck.

[dakar]

The fishing line sounds like a good idea.... so long as I'm not the one to have to wind it up over the frame. Is he running halides over that? I'd expect monofilimet line would be apt to melt or degrade over time from UV, then you'd one mell of a hess on your hands.

Amanda - the light blocking effect is purely from a physical sense, it's between the lamps and the water... not to mention it's 3/8" tall... looking down at it from an angle would block a significant amount of light's 'line of sight'

[mutts]

I going to say I'm sorry now, I'm an 18 year old girl, some times the whole lighting thing goes over my head... so you may have to go slow and draw me pictures, lol.

The light that is being blocked by the egg crate is a significant amount, isn't that bad? How much of my 250 W of PC is really getting to my coral? I always thought it wasn't much because I've read of lots of people doing it. So is this actully something that needs to be remided soon?

[Dirt4dinner]

If memory serves he was running 4 250W halides on a HUGE tank...he didn't seem to have any problems, I certainly wouldn't want the light right down close to the line...he had a pretty good clearence.

[dakar]

For fluorescent lamps I would imagine the effect would be less dramatic since the light output is more spread out than a single point source like halides would be. Try replacing the panel with white or the silver and see if that improves things for you.

[mutts]

okay thanks for the help, i will let you know what happens when i change it over. thanks again

[dsfdbutterfly]

Tyler,

I would love to know more info on this fishing line thing. I would like to get a firefly fish but have always been hesitant because I don't want to use the eggcrate. I have MH on my set up. Can you find out more from the guy as to what he is using and if he has seen and degrade in the string from the light? This might just be an option for me. Sorry to bust in on your thread Amanda.

Angie