Food for thought: Epiweb in the reef aquarium

[Anonymous]

Over in the orchid and vivarium hobbies a product called epiweb was introduced some time ago. It's basically a porous, inert plastic... similar to those made for commercial buffing/sanding applications. It's useful in those other hobbies for reasons that aren't remotely applicable to a reef tank, but it's nature presents some intriguing possibilities for reef tank use. Before I start on those, here's a link to the manufacturer's web site for the product....

http://www.epiweb.se/english.htm

Why do I think it might have applications in a reef tank? Well, let's say someone took panels of the stuff and siliconed them to the back of a tank as a background. Firstly, being plastic, it'll quickly be covered by coralline algae. But it's also porous. The downside to that is it will likely accumulate detritus and therefore has the potential to become a nitrate factory. But wait! By it's very nature it provides a huge living space for microfauna to colonize, free from predation; effectively a non-intrusive in-tank refugium I would think. In that role, acting as a detritus magnet just assures the micro fauna dwelling throughout have a ready food supply.

It's also easy to carve, available in various shapes (including branches and mounds) and can be shaped by heating it and bending it to suit. One could create a three-dimensional "rock" background out of the stuff that, once covered by coralline, would look quite nice and natural.

Thoughts? I'm out of the reef game myself so can't give it a try, so I thought I'd mention this stuff here for discussion.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know if I'd put that in my tank for the very reason you mentioned, however in a sump application where you could remove it easily should it get too gunked up might be worth a try.

 

[Anonymous]

It's a bit of a toss up in my mind if the microfauna could keep it in check. I'm just reminded of a tank my ex-wife ran a decade ago... a 40g breeder with clownfish and rose anemones. She used a sort of very coarse crushed shells for substrate in that one, which had the result of creating nooks, crannies and passageways throughout. It collected detritus like no one's business, but the population of bugs in that tank was far, far more dense than in any other tank I've ever seen. They did manage to keep nitrates in reasonable check and I can't help but wonder if this would function similarly.

 

[Anonymous]

The thing is this stuff might not be coarse enough, I mean hell it looks like that same material they make mesh-wheel mods on skimmer pumps. I'd be a bit afraid it'd have too much ability to trap gunk and not enough ability to house bugs.

Although I'll admit I've never paid much attention, but detritus usually settles on the bottom of a tank doesn't it? So would having it vertical protect it a bit?

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting thought...you should start a nano CJDev and see if it works :wink: