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Maxima Clam - Ultra Blue


Jmifland

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I have been looking into the Maxima Clam Ultra Blue on LA. I currently have a 1.6 Gallon Aquarium that is being lit by a PAR30 bulb that I purchased from BoostLED. The LEDs are as follows:

 

2 x Royal Blue

1 x Blue

1 x Cool White

1 x Neutral White

 

I plan for this to be the only coral in the pico aquarium. It will be on my nightstand and I will be feeding it both phyto and zooplankton. I was wondering if I would be able to successfully keep this coral alive with the light that I mentioned above. The only other inhabitants would be a very small clean up crew.

 

The flow is from a MiniJet 404 which pushes out 108 GPH. I will also be using Chemi-Pure Elite and Purigen in the back filtration chamber along with a sponge on top and a filter pad on the top of the sponge. I will continue to read the sticky above and find as much information on this coral as possible before making a purchase. Please let me know if things are looking good for this corals with my current setup. I also have a spare AI Nano Super Blue that could be used if needed.

 

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...&pcatid=586

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Sorry, Invert :) I have been working all morning so I am a little out of it. I had it set up for about a month and had a chaeto meltdown so I had to scrap the tank. Which is why I decided to go with chemical filtration. I now have about an inch high sand bed of Carib-Sea Bahama Oolite live sand and a small rock resting up against the back wall. The tank has not completed it's cycle but I figured now was the perfect time to get it started so that it would be finished cycling by March so that I could have it ready for my new apartment. This would be a future purchase but I probably wouldn't add anything into the tank aside from a clean-up crew until I was ready for the clam.

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A 1.6 gallon aquarium is waaaayy too small. Not to mention keeping up with water params especially since you want to feed it, which clams don't need BTW. A clam needs an established tank of at least 6 months.

 

Also a clam is considered to be an invert, not a coral.

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A 1.6 gallon aquarium is waaaayy too small. Not to mention keeping up with water params especially since you want to feed it, which clams don't need BTW. A clam needs an established tank of at least 6 months.

 

Also a clam is considered to be an invert, not a coral.

If the clam doesn't need to be fed then that won't be a problem, the tank would be much cleaner. Does the clam move around? Why would it need a larger aquarium? I know that they can grow up to 6 inches and I don't know too much about them so I apologize for being so uneducated :(

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clams suck up a lot of calcium...keeping your calcium stable would be really tough, and figuring out how to do it would probably kill the clam with the parameter swings.

 

Clams are sensitive to all parameter swings, and a tank that small would be almost impossible to NOT swing.

 

I honestly think thats probably the only issue; you're right they don't NEED much space, just light and stability.

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Agreed with the above. Any of our photosynthetic clams (or really any clam) will not be a good choice for a 1.6 gallon tank.

 

 

You will have to test your calcium and alk at least weekly, maybe bi-weekly, and you'll inevitably have problems with water stability---- various parameters could fluctuate to the detriment of the clam.

 

 

This CAN be done in a 1.6 gallon tank, but please do not kill a clam right now until you really get some strong experience and success with corals, which are WAAAAY more renewable.

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DO THIS IT WOULD LOOK SO SWEET

I'm going to see what I can do about keeping calcium stable. Otherwise I am going to go with either a white or pink long tentacle plate coral.

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It would be one heck of a challenge. You'd have to be really diligent with water changes and your maintenance. I would be doing daily checks of alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, pH and salinity to determine how much they swing over the course of several weeks before considering adding the clam. Once you can master keeping your parameters stable I think it could be done. You might find that calcium and other trace elements can be maintained with water changes. If not, you might have to dose! Regardless you will need an ATO to ensure that salinity doesn’t move much. If you can pull it off, I’d be impressed. It’s a really cool idea, just possibly difficult logistically.

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It would be one heck of a challenge. You'd have to be really diligent with water changes and your maintenance. I would be doing daily checks of alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, pH and salinity to determine how much they swing over the course of several weeks before considering adding the clam. Once you can master keeping your parameters stable I think it could be done. You might find that calcium and other trace elements can be maintained with water changes. If not, you might have to dose! Regardless you will need an ATO to ensure that salinity doesn’t move much. If you can pull it off, I’d be impressed. It’s a really cool idea, just possibly difficult logistically.

Going to be difficult to judge that though. Nothing is in the tank to use the calcium and a coral probably won't use as much as a clam. I was thinking about setting up 2-3 gallons of water in a jug as a make shift sump just to increase the water volume. Change a cup or two a week won't be a problem. I will continue to research.

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Right, I should have said that you would need to add the check for calcium and magnesium after adding the clam.

 

If you could add a sump it would be much easier to keep thats for sure.

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Going to be difficult to judge that though. Nothing is in the tank to use the calcium and a coral probably won't use as much as a clam. I was thinking about setting up 2-3 gallons of water in a jug as a make shift sump just to increase the water volume. Change a cup or two a week won't be a problem. I will continue to research.

 

A cup or two a day, not week!

 

Speaking of that, what do you guys think is more stable.... a 1 gallon water change every 7 days, or a 1 cup water change every day? Seems like common sense but just curious on more opinions, thanks!

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A cup or two a day, not week!

 

Speaking of that, what do you guys think is more stable.... a 1 gallon water change every 7 days, or a 1 cup water change every day? Seems like common sense but just curious on more opinions, thanks!

I think the girl friend and I have decided on a pink long tentacle plate coral. I think I may introduce a clam into my 40 breeder but I'm not sure if it will work since we are also getting a lemonpeel angelfish. I read that angels are a predator of clams so it might not work out too well.

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good call on the clam in a small tank i mean technically it fits. but its not unheard of for an average sized clam to suck 100ppm of cal out of a tank daily i've seen it happen granted it was 2 or 3 clams in a 100+gallon system so you can imagine how much a clam in a system as small as 1.6 gallons would do. i'm not knowledgeable on angels so i'm bowing out of that one. good luck with the 40 if you dose that tank its probably alot easier to keep a clam. i used to have one until my anemone went rouge.

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good call on the clam in a small tank i mean technically it fits. but its not unheard of for an average sized clam to suck 100ppm of cal out of a tank daily i've seen it happen granted it was 2 or 3 clams in a 100+gallon system so you can imagine how much a clam in a system as small as 1.6 gallons would do. i'm not knowledgeable on angels so i'm bowing out of that one. good luck with the 40 if you dose that tank its probably alot easier to keep a clam. i used to have one until my anemone went rouge.

I've like to keep one sebae anemone for my clowns. Hopefully it won't go rogue and kill anything in the tank. That would be no good.

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  • 2 weeks later...
darkwhitemagic
Just a heads up Maxima Clams can grow to 12" and Crocea Clams grow to 6".

wrong. they both grow to ~ 6", even check the FAQ in the clam section here.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Could i do this with a 7.5 gallon (12 inch cube) ?

 

From what I have seen, it may be possible but a pain in the @#$... the calcium levels deplete faster than you can even do water changes. That's probably why so many 2 part dose

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  • 1 month later...
wrong. they both grow to ~ 6", even check the FAQ in the clam section here.

 

 

He is absolutely correct. Maxi's can grow out to 30 - 40 centimeters, which is 12 - 15 inches. I have had 12 inch maximas. Have not read the FAQ here, but if it said maxi's only grow to 6" its wrong.

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JamieSheffield

I got a beautiful clam for free with a recent order from Mr. Coral, and it is the first thing in my tank that my eye goes to...I would love for him to grow to 6+ inches...somebody on this forum posted pics of a clam in one of their tanks that was more than 20 inches across!

 

Jamie

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I got a beautiful clam for free with a recent order from Mr. Coral, and it is the first thing in my tank that my eye goes to...I would love for him to grow to 6+ inches...somebody on this forum posted pics of a clam in one of their tanks that was more than 20 inches across!

 

Jamie

Yes, that was me =)

 

067yh.jpg

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