Egg Crate – A Useful Tool For Aquascaping

Whether you are using it to help create mounds/hills in your substrate or to support your driftwood structures egg crate is a very useful tool for aquascaping. It can be found in many places at an affordable price & is easy to cut with a pair of wire snips. It is also available in different colors so you can use it to color coordinate with the decor in your tank. It is also great to have on hand for frag racks or for supporting large rocks in your aquarium. The all black color is also less likely to attract plague algae growth as some other plastics can do.

Many aquarists use egg crate under the substrate of their tanks to protect the glass floor from rock falls. While this is a valid concern it is not the only reason to use egg crate. The most important reason to use egg crate is to allow water flow under your rockwork. This allows more of the LR surface to be exposed for nitrification & it also helps prevent detritus build up.

Another benefit of using egg crate under the substrate is to provide a more stable base for your rockwork. This is especially important for the larger sized rocks in your tank. Many of these rocks have a lot of weight that can cause them to crack or break the aquarium glass. Egg crate helps to distribute the weight of these larger rocks and can reduce the likelihood that they will impact the aquarium glass at just the right angle to exploit an existing flaw in the glass.

One last reason to use egg crate is to limit the amount of light that is spilled out of the aquarium. The grid cells in the egg crate help to focus the light into a narrower beam which helps to control the amount of soft light that is spilled out of the tank. This can be a huge advantage over using larger flags or barndoors for the same purpose.

All of these uses for egg crate are simple, inexpensive & effective. I think that aquarists underestimate how much this simple grating can do for their reef tank. I recommend that everyone keep some on hand in the back of their shop and give it a try. It may not be a necessity but I have found it to be very valuable. Just be sure to measure before cutting to make sure you have enough to cover the entire area that needs to be covered. If you are unable to find what you need online or at your local fish store, consider contacting the vendor directly to see if they can help you.