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.
My experience with T5's is if the tank is deeper than 24" any light demanding corals and also clams need to be kept in the mid to upper part of the tank, I'd recommend 250w MH's with 4 80w t5's if you use the lumen max reflectors you can get away with 2 MH bulbs. I've seen it done on a 72" long...
If your looking for a deal Steve at Aqua Oceans sells all snails and blue leg hermits for $1 ea I think he's the cheapest store in the state. He's the home of the $1 snail :)
His fish prices and health are great too.
I'm going to try and make the meeting, I have 2 frags of super hairy pavona I'll be donating to the raffle if I can't make it I'll pass it along to someone to get it their...
Be careful using any sand that is NOT intended for aquarium use, company's are adding anti fungal and bacteria agents to the sand (playsand), there is no test to see if the sand is treated. (this could explain why so many people where having tank crashes with DSB)
What's the difference between plastic and glass? I was curious with that so I tested in both and got the same reading 000 then did the same test with tap water both were the same 084 ???
What Phyl said....and also what type of lighting do you have and how deep is your tank? I found that if they don't get enough light and flow they start to receed.