Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
I'm running the Nova Extreme 8x54 and I love this fixture for the price. I am running 13k & 420nm actinics, I can grow out SPS frags on the sandbed in a 75 gallon tank. I think the 8x54 would be a better choice and at $420 bucks you cant beat it.
Long story short; Tim is a friend of a friend and I did house plans for him and his wife. I also live in Point Beach and have been on that boat since I was a child.
If you're trying to save money, then I would suggest you buy dry based rock for the foundation and place a few pieces of live rock to seed the tank. Also in my opinion Tropiquarium is one of the best LFS in NJ.
I have the 48" 8X54 Nova Extreme and the fixture is awesome. I did replace the HO bulbs after with VHO bulbs. I can keep SPS frags on the sand bed where snails won’t knock them over and the lower I place the SPS corals the better the color. I haven’t tried clams so I can’t speak first hand here...
I have a couple of emerald crabs and I have no problems what so ever. You mentioned the crab caught a ride into your system, are you certain on the I.D.? If so I see no harm in just keeping him. If there are sufficient algae or other means of food he will do no harm to your corals.
I read an article once where a guy placed a couple of camelback shrimp in a QT and treated the affected corals. He would take the infested corals and place them in the tank with the shrimp for a few hours each day; never leaving them in the tank for too long. He mentioned that if the corals are...