Egg crate as frag tray, treating?

[sd45x]

Emily & I are starting a new frag tank, our first, a 20x20x10. Stand alone for now, 10g sump with fuge, NAC 3.5, Rio 2500+, SCWD, 150w LED (eShine) at 14" above water level.

To my question, I've heard people "treat" the egg crate (florescent light cover) first but can't seem to find info on it.

Do we need to treat it first? If so how?

Thanx,
Peter & Emily

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[dahenley]

Some people claim it peaches phosphate,but I have never had any problems with it growing any type of algae.
I have painted some with krylon fusion with no ill effects either.

[sd45x]

Thank you for the reply, we've used small bits in my DT but never a large piece. I guess since I have time, I'll grab a can of Krylon Fusion and give it a try.

[bvysochin]

I'd strongly suggest against using the white eggcrate.. I did remember reading prior to using it that there were a few different types of white, some ok for our applications, others horrible.. Well.. when we tried, we ended up with the horrible type. We had never ending algae.. despite running three phosban reactors, trying all new bulbs, tons and TONS of macroalgae, we couldn't get it to go away. We'd manually pluck at least a solid gallon of nasty algae a week, and still couldn't keep up. We lost many, many corals after them getting smothered.. It's around $10 for a 24x24 sheet of black eggcrate from BRS.. One of the best investments we ever made..

[tibob32]

I had a bunch of algae located solely on the eggcrate in my last frag tank, which I have the feeling was due to the eggcrate (no strong evidence). I just soak my eggcrate in RODI for a while. Some people go to the extent of soaking in vinegar for several days, but I dont have the patience

[smsreefer]

Soaking and testing for silicates never hurts either.
Some are known to release silicates as well.

[RichardinMa]

I have a frag tank that I am using white egg crate in and do not have any problems with it. I typically use the black but only because I like the color better but did not have any available when i was putting this tank together. I have no algae in that system at all- even on the egg crate. I would not put paint in my tanks.

[jeff@zina.com]

White egg crate, no treatment here. Algae is a fact of life and you just deal with it. Krylon is safe when dry/cured.

Jeff

[sd45x]

Thanx for the replies, I just put it in, we'll see how it goes and keep an eye on my levels.