Egg crate leaching toxins and phosphates

[bklynreef]

I just read an enormous article about egg crate leaching toxins and phosphates and I think this is something that needs to be recognized of if we're using this in our tanks. I will try to find the article and post it.

 

[bklynreef]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2277701

 

[Waleedwale1]

So basically everything is dangerous to our reefs lol

 

[duromega]

yeah even the skimmers

 

[greg 45]

Have you tried to put this in a clean salt water tank and do testing on it ??

 

[Dan_P]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2277701

Thanks for the link! Makes for interesting reading. Links in the article were interesting too.

The decision we face when selecting safe plastics for the aquarium is difficult because the available information does not tell us the rate of leaching, the effect on marine fish and coral, the rate at which potentially toxic materials are removed from the aquarium by our filtration methods and what consumes or degrades these toxins. If we had this information, we could rank plastics from "usable" to "avoid it".

In any case, the amounts we are talking about are likely to be very, very small. So, keep skimming, performing regular water changes, and using activated carbon to minimize contaminants in your aquarium.

 

[bklynreef]

I am in the midst of a frag tank build and my solution to this is Krylon Fusion Spray Paint on the white diffuser. Black diffusers attract less algae than white and protecting the leaching from the diffuser will be solved, but if you do this make sure you let the paint cure for 7 days before putting it in the tank.

 

[Dan_P]

While the MSDS is not particularly scary for Krylon Fusion, what scientific studies have been conducted to understand chemicals leaching from cured paint? It seems like a big leap of faith that painted polystyrene is safer than virgin polystyrene.