Eggcrate between plastic screen??

[TankTinkerer]

I used a piece of eggcrate and glued two flimsy pieces of plastic canvas to it. SantaMonica said one screen and no eggcrate is best. Now the lower hole in the main pipe where the water drips onto the screen is about 1/4 inch wide. What's wrong with having a piece of rigid eggcrate between the two pieces of plastic canvas?

I have the lights on a timer, 18 hours on and 6 hours off. I got a thin brown layer of algae after 7 days and rinsed 90% off both sides, then thought I needed to keep one side. Do I need to rinse both sides off EACH week?

If I'm only getting thin brown algae, is that because this is new or because my lights don't cover the entire screen 100% (more like 70%) or because my two screens are separated by a piece of eggcrate?

Is the algae suppossed to be brown or green? The brown stuff isn't oily.

[iggy]

Thin brown film that washes of is normal progression at first. Do not be concerned it will grow!

My thoughts are ease of maintenance is a major priority. Seems like your trying to increase surface area but that area is not directly lit and will be less productive.

[SantaMonica]

The eggcrate creates a dead zone between the layers that will accumulate dead growth, which will add nutrtients.

[TankTinkerer]

I was thinking that I would cut through a single piece of plastic canvas with the hole saw and I wanted something more rigid to hold the screen in place, so that's why I used the eggcrate.

So if I were going to re-design a new holder for a single piece of plastic canvas, would I use the Dremel tool to make a hoel just big enough to slide the screen into the pipe and use zip-ties to hold the screen onto the pipe?

[SantaMonica]

Yes. 1/8 inch.