I am looking for a good sand stirrer. I had some white burrowing starfish, but they got eaten by my pacific or fire cleaner shrimp?
Thanks! Marty < Good questions... ones that are tough to answer... Regarding the CF lamps, you'll have to check with your supplier...some have "effective lifetimes" about the same as (T-12) regular/old-fashioned fluorescents... on the order of 7,500 to 10,000 hours... and others up to 20,000 hours... And really, the only way to tell, irrespective of "doing the math" on how many hours you're running yours... that they need replacing is to use a PAR or lumen meter... IMO they should be replaced either at 80% of their calculated "effective lifetime" or at 80% of their output... The latter, the better judge.> “Avoid Mithrax crabs. They may do a good job when real small but they grow real fast and cause damage”, this bit lifted from the URL you posted. But also see: From ‘The Reef Aquarium, Vol. 1’, Sprung and Delbeek, p279: Mithrax crabs are good herbivores for large aquariums. Mithrax sculptus only grows to about 6.3 cm (2.5 inches), but is capable of capturing small fish. Some Mithrax sp
