Jedi's Science Reef

[ZephNYC]

This is my Dr. Mac Maxima after about... 6 weeks or so is it Zeph?

 

 

Yes that's right. Have I old you how much I hate you lately ?

[Nemo101]

Yep, clams are sooo pretty! I would love one, but my lights are terrible and my "saltwater funds" are low... lol! yours looks great, btw!

[jedimaster1138]

In other news, I got an email today - from Kevin Kohen.

[banshee]

wow! This is sweet! I so wish I had room and money for a huge tank!

[jedimaster1138]

Big maxima was gaping this morning. No clue why. Parameters are all good...alk is a tad low 7.3, but being corrected with slightly longer dosing times.

 

Turned up my lights some...will bump again tomorrow. Today will peak at A-57% B-90%.

 

Crosses fingers.

 

Everything else looks good. Hairy algae might even be abating, slightly... I need to move my red dragon acro down actually...I think it's getting too much light, looks a bit washed out.

[Reef Goddess]

I've been using BRS chemicals for 2+ years now with no problems following Randy's recipe. I also dose kalkwasser into my RO top off container a couple times a week. Salifert Amino acids are great for the sps and other corals. Beyond that, regular water changes with Instant Ocean (I make my own saltwater) and my fish get fed a lot esp now that I have a Bartlett harem.

[ZephNYC]

take a picture of the gape.

[jedimaster1138]

Yah. I'll get on up when I get home tonight.

 

It looks nice and open and fluffy, but yeah, the mouth is gaping. I can see it's innards. My small maxima and my squammie are fine.

[Mr. Microscope]

take a picture of the gape.

perv..lol

[ZephNYC]

perv..lol

 

Takes one to know one. te he heeee!

 

Yah. I'll get on up when I get home tonight.

 

It looks nice and open and fluffy, but yeah, the mouth is gaping. I can see it's innards. My small maxima and my squammie are fine.

 

Whoaaa boy....I don't want to say it.

[jedimaster1138]

More gaping pictures. The funny thing about it is that it's not 100% of the time. I guess that's a good thing and there is still some hope...

 

 

 

 

 

[ZephNYC]

That last picture looks perfect.

Ok, bad news first...

My experience with these big Maximas is that gaping ( even as little as that ) is the first sign of a downward spiral which often(usually) leads to death in as little as 3 days. If the mantle starts to recede you can kiss it goodbye. This is when people panic and do things like feed it allot or they check all their water parameters, etc, and wonder whats wrong because everything is perfect. Nothing is wrong, and feeding it wont help ,So just leave it be because if it does make It, it needs to go through the metabolic changes to survive in your tank.

 

The good news is...

Again, there is nothing you can do. and they have snapped out of it before. If you feel you must do something raise her off the floor and put he high on the rockwork close to the bulbs. These girls simply can not get too much light. I was just checking my DD invoices and realized my crocea has been in big berthas tank for 3 months now. I checked her today and she is CEMENTED to the rockwork and super duper healthy. Why Croceas and all other species can rock in my tank, but maximas just don't do well, is the question of the century.

[jedimaster1138]

Looks horrendous right now. I'm fairly sure about what I'm going to find tomorrow morning. SIGH

[metrokat]

Check out my new Dr Mac aquacultured Maxima, Zeph sent it to me as a gift! I'm sorry about your clammy.

Are you for sure going to the swap?

[ZephNYC]

Looks horrendous right now. I'm fairly sure about what I'm going to find tomorrow morning. SIGH

 

Welcome to my world Jedimaster.

It blows my mind how these clams can look awesome one day and be dead 3 days later, but it happens time and time again. Try a Crocea next time, Im very excited how well mine are doing. I think these Maximas have very unique lighting requirements, and a sneaking suspicion that they DONT like actinc/blue range. Barry, the original "Clam man" used to say only 10K halides for these girls - nothing else.

 

My newest big maxi is under relatively lower light then I usually subject them to. Shes directly under a 150W, 10K halide, which offers very little blue range light and is a little yellow. 24/7 drip of 4 types of phyto, and benefiting from the frozen rotifers and daphnia I feed the NPS all day long. This is basically an experiment as the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We need to think outside the box. Time will tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out my new Dr Mac aquacultured Maxima, Zeph sent it to me as a gift! I'm sorry about your clammy.

Are you for sure going to the swap?

 

 

 

Yea, lets get our swap plans in sinc. I wanna go, but I don't wanna spend anymore $$$$$. UGHHHHH.

[Griever]

Man.. I want a clam, but I'm terrified after reading all of Zeph's posts.. lol

[jedimaster1138]

Mantle retracted into the shell this morning. Probably a few hours from a nassarius snail feast.

 

I'm pretty ticked off right now. And frustrated. And a lot of other things. It was perfect 3 days ago, now it's (mostly) dead. W.T.F. ¹⁰⁰⁰.

 

I can only think of 2 things :

 

1) It didn't like the Phosguard. I find this unlikely as a lot of people run that and I'm using 1/4 of the recommended dose with VERY low flow. Plus I can't see it liking .16ppm po4- instead.

 

2) As usual - light. This is the frustrating part. I've been at A:50 B:90 for a week, moving up a % or two every couple days. I can't exactly just jump from 50 to 100 over night. Nor do I plan on it. LED's are seriously intense light. That being said, maybe I should have run up faster.

 

Also, I'm lower on the A channel for spectrum/aesthetics purposes. The A channel is where the white is, so there's that.

 

I'm done with maximas, unless the following happens at the swap: Dr. Mac BLOWS ME AWAY with cultured and MOUNTED maximas. I don't think big maximas are keepable in a "normal" reef environment...at least not for me. So i'm only touching cultured ones. And the mounting issue isn't negotiable. I'm not dealing with attachment related issues. I want a clam that's piratically glued to a tile or something like my blue squamosa is.

 

So we'll see what happens next Sunday. If there's nothing awesome, i'm not buying any more clams. I'll focus on SPS. At least I can tell that they aren't happy and still have a chance.

 

RE: the swap - I'm going, but early. We just ironed out the wedding photog today. I want to get first pick of things before everything gets picked over. Then I'm hoping to leave for home early-ish. I'd normally stay for the raffle (yay free stuff) but don't think I can handle it this year. So yeah, in a perfect world, I want to get there at 10. What are you plans Zephy and Katty?

[ZephNYC]

Man.. I want a clam, but I'm terrified after reading all of Zeph's posts.. lol

Oh don't be !!! Lately I have only been having problems with maximas. I think almost ANY reef tank can keep a deresa long term, most tanks can keep squamosas. And if you have really hot light croceas can be a colorful challenge. Just don't try a maxima until you've got clamage under your belt.

[ZephNYC]

Mantle retracted into the shell this morning. Probably a few hours from a nassarius snail feast.

 

I'm pretty ticked off right now. And frustrated. And a lot of other things. It was perfect 3 days ago, now it's (mostly) dead. W.T.F. ¹⁰⁰⁰.

 

I can only think of 2 things :

 

1) It didn't like the Phosguard. I find this unlikely as a lot of people run that and I'm using 1/4 of the recommended dose with VERY low flow. Plus I can't see it liking .16ppm po4- instead.

 

2) As usual - light. This is the frustrating part. I've been at A:50 B:90 for a week, moving up a % or two every couple days. I can't exactly just jump from 50 to 100 over night. Nor do I plan on it. LED's are seriously intense light. That being said, maybe I should have run up faster.

 

Also, I'm lower on the A channel for spectrum/aesthetics purposes. The A channel is where the white is, so there's that.

 

I'm done with maximas, unless the following happens at the swap: Dr. Mac BLOWS ME AWAY with cultured and MOUNTED maximas. I don't think big maximas are keepable in a "normal" reef environment...at least not for me. So i'm only touching cultured ones. And the mounting issue isn't negotiable. I'm not dealing with attachment related issues. I want a clam that's piratically glued to a tile or something like my blue squamosa is.

 

So we'll see what happens next Sunday. If there's nothing awesome, i'm not buying any more clams. I'll focus on SPS. At least I can tell that they aren't happy and still have a chance.

 

RE: the swap - I'm going, but early. We just ironed out the wedding photog today. I want to get first pick of things before everything gets picked over. Then I'm hoping to leave for home early-ish. I'd normally stay for the raffle (yay free stuff) but don't think I can handle it this year. So yeah, in a perfect world, I want to get there at 10. What are you plans Zephy and Katty?

 

 

ok, here we go...

Sorry you lost your clam. You havnt even stated the status of it, but I already know.

Its not the phosguard. Ive kept Dr. mac large Maximas in QT with heavy phosguard for 3 months without a stich. My problems arise when I put them in Berthas tank, but that's another post.

What do I think is your problem ???? First to look at with clams is always light. I know you think your light is super strong, and you know I love you,.... but its not. I know its not at max capacity, and understand why. I know you increased it since I was last there. But last I was, I remember thinking it looked dark to me. I only have this mind set because I'm so used to literally frying them under halides. The fact that it looked great and I'm always the one having problems led me to think maybe you were on to something.

THese large maximas have a very very high metabilc rate, and need far more light then even your most demanding acroporas. Fatheree puts it clearly when he explains that acro only has to support its zooxanthellea, and even it needs very stong light. Clams have to do all of that, plus support kidneys, a stomach and other organs as well. They really need the strongest lighting out of any and all reef creatures. Bar none.

I have kept huge maximas for 6 - 7 months, when I very first set up my big system, before my pinched mantle plague, And Now I am striving to replicate how that system was back then. No carbon, no ozone, and I've always used phosguard.

I also know that....and im going to type this in caps - WATER CHANGES ARE BAD FOR LARGE MAXIMAS. VERY VERY BAD. If your system is already very low in DOC and you do a large water change with new water, it can kill your clams overnight. BEEN THERE DONE THAT. I've had super healthy maximas drop dead from a 50% water change. If your tank is somewhat dirty a water change wont hurt, but let it be said too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

Ready for another Wayne Shang reference ?? Kat knows I cant rant about how to keep clams with out mentioning Wayne. The only man alive I KNOW of that can keep a 700 gal reef tank with around 50 monster grade A maxima clams - NEVER DOES WATER CHANGES EVER EVER EVER. The only time he changes water is to ADD MORE POLUTION from his fish systems. Kat was also telling me about some guy with 18 clams in his SMALL reef tank, and he changed something like 10% ever few months??? something like that.

So take that for whatever its worth. I believe we can keep these big maximas with 10K halide lights, and limiting water changes, and perhaps skipping the carbon/CAG.

[TheKleinReef]

After reading this... When should I expect my healthy looking 3.5" gold maxima to kick the bucket. Not giving me much hope here. :/

[ZephNYC]

After reading this... When should I expect my healthy looking 3.5" gold maxima to kick the bucket. Not giving me much hope here. :/

 

Keep us posted. Perhaps your system is clam friendly, like the rare few. Also the gold ones are more hardy than the blue ones.

[jedimasterben]

What do I think is your problem ???? First to look at with clams is always light. I know you think your light is super strong, and you know I love you,.... but its not. I know its not at max capacity, and understand why. I know you increased it since I was last there. But last I was, I remember thinking it looked dark to me. I only have this mind set because I'm so used to literally frying them under halides. The fact that it looked great and I'm always the one having problems led me to think maybe you were on to something.

He's running LEDs. They don't have to look bright to put out more than enough light to keep a clam. I finally got a PAR meter and measured my blue maxima's mantle at around 220 PAR - miniscule in comparison to what I plan on giving it, nevertheless enough to sustain a small amount of growth.

[ZephNYC]

He's running LEDs. They don't have to look bright to put out more than enough light to keep a clam. I finally got a PAR meter and measured my blue maxima's mantle at around 220 PAR - miniscule in comparison to what I plan on giving it, nevertheless enough to sustain a small amount of growth.

 

Never the less, the tank looked dark to me,

[Chew_Magna]

Ready for another Wayne Shang reference ?? Kat knows I cant rant about how to keep clams with out mentioning Wayne. The only man alive I KNOW of that can keep a 700 gal reef tank with around 50 monster grade A maxima clams - NEVER DOES WATER CHANGES EVER EVER EVER. The only time he changes water is to ADD MORE POLUTION from his fish systems. Kat was also telling me about some guy with 18 clams in his SMALL reef tank, and he changed something like 10% ever few months??? something like that.

I'm glad you posted that. I've been looking into a clam for a while now but I've been hesitant due to the stories I hear about them. This kinda fits me because I almost never get to my water changes when I should. Eventually, but not like I should.

[TheKleinReef]

Keep us posted. Perhaps your system is clam friendly, like the rare few. Also the gold ones are more hardy than the blue ones.

 

That does make sense I lost my 7" maxima a while back. I'll keep you posted, I'm not doing anything special though. Should I be, I don't want to over think it causing problems.

 

Sorry for the hijack Jedi