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Maxima Clam / Alife tank an experiment in breaking the rules of MH

Acoustic

By Acoustic,
in General Discussion

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Acoustic

Acoustic

Posted
Posted

Ok so heres the deal:

 

I have read and researched tons and tons of junk on clams.

 

So I am conducting a semi scientific experiment. I am going to see if I can successfully raise a maxima clam in an Alife 5 gallon 27 watt PC tank.

 

My hypothesis:

 

With regular feeding of Phyto, in combination with my lighting, I believe I can break the Metal Halide Maxima clam only rule. The clam is only 9" from the PC light and placed at the bottom of the live rock partially in the sand.

 

 

Updates to follow. Comments encouraged.

 

This is day 1.

 

Pic of how the clam looks is attached. It is approximately 2 inches in length.

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Sahin

Sahin

Posted
Posted

Hello there.

 

I too have a maxima clam under similar lighting. I have a 2.75inch purple maxima with metallic blue wavy lines. Its a Beautiful clam. See the attached pic.

 

Now my lighting is currently 3x25watt NO Flouros. I have had this clam for almost 9 months. If you read some of my previous posts you will see that at one point I even had T5 lighitng, during which time the clam stopped growing. I also had a smaller maxima and a large crocea that I had to give back to the LFS after I realised they werent going to suitable under the lighting I had.

 

After I switched back to NO lighting the clam has started to grow again.

I think I am lucky with this paricular clam.

 

I dose C-balance and extra calcium with Kents Calcium additive.

 

My tank is very shallow like yours and the clam is sitting only about 5-4 inches below the lights.

 

If the light spectrum is good enough for the clam, you may be able to pull it off. But at the first sign of discolouring etc, lack of growth after say a month, then its signs that the clam is just hanging on to life-get it back to the LFS or it will die.

 

Hope this helps.

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SeaFish

SeaFish

Posted
Posted

wow...that clam looks awsome. good job. i currently have a purple corcea clam about 1.5-2inches in size. it is under 4 36watt power compact lighting with a total of 144 watt of light in this 20gallon tank. i have it about 6 inches from teh water surface. so far its doing good. i hope mine gets as pretty as that one on your attach pic.

 

also, let us know how that maxima do from the first post. thank you.

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JDNels

JDNels

Posted
Posted

Would like to know how it goes with the Alife and clam

I just got done retroing my alife hood and now have

2 of the 27w 50/50 and left room for a 13w actinic.

I was thinking about a squamosa....

Will post to DIY on the retro soon:)

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reefan

reefan

Posted
Posted

How will you be feeding the phyto?? A tank that size this may not be able to handle daily feedings. Unless depth is great I do not understand why people feel that MH are a must.

JJ

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shalegac

shalegac

Posted
Posted

I kept a 3 inch clam under 18 watts of PC 50/50. It was in my 10 gallon and did just fine. I was keeping it for a friend and feed it phyto every 3 days. Don't know if that helps, just throwing in my 2 cents.

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LiQuiD

LiQuiD

Posted
Posted

Reefan, I feed my 2.5 gallon 5 drops of phyto everyother day at this point and may yet again increase the dose in a week or so. It is not the size of the tank that would be the issue, it is making sure not to put in more then the inhabitants will consume, thereby polluting the water.

 

Acoustic, If you are going to go day by day, you are going to have many many posts to this thread. A juvenile clam of that size is not very light dependent and is more in need of calcium and phytoplankton. You could keep it under an incadescent 1 watt bulb and not feed it anything and it would appear normal for months (until it starves to death). What I am getting at, is that at this point, it is not the light that will make or break the clams survival, it is if it has enough food and calcium to feed and grow, and you will only know if this is the case as the weeks go by.

 

There are many of us that have been keeping these clams under PC's, just need to do a search. Here are a couple of mine, I have had this clam since Christmas in a 2.5 gallon with 26 watts of PC lighting. this was at 6 weeks http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...=&threadid=6936 and this was at 8 weeks http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...=&threadid=7558

 

Good luck with the clam and remember, feed it phyto and make sure your Ca is not too low.

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OscarBeast

OscarBeast

Posted
Posted

LiQuiD is correct. Clams tend to look great for several weeks then die very quickly if they are going to. A day by day isn't going to tell anyone much. Let us know in a month or a month and a half how it is doing.

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Acoustic

Acoustic

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks liquid and oscarbeast. I have been feeding it everyday. I will revive this post a month from now and give an update.

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anthony812

anthony812

Posted
Posted

First off..good luck with your experiment! its good to see people are wealthy enough to try something like this.

Its not how much wattage you have on your lights in your tank, its the PAR that matters, as the 1st grade-Ultra clams uses that as a food source. But again, a smaller clam does not acquire its food from the light but more on feeding..I have found out that phyto, such as DT mixed with Kent Coral-Vert will work the best on smaller clams. For maximas and crocea, its a good idea to wedge them in between LR and let the foot attach to the actual rock for better growth and stability.

Power compact bulbs looses their PAR intensity after ~5months of use...where as Mh will last ~12 months..

i hope the project will turn out ok..cuz i really don't want to see another Beautiful Maxima die due to someone's curiosity. I know all this is for science..but come on..people does not suggest Metal Haliding for no reason..there is other clams that you may keep happily under PCs such as Derasa or Squomosa. just my .02

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adinsxq

adinsxq

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by Acoustic

Thanks Anthony . :  My clam was aquacultured so no harm to the environment.

Originally posted by anthony812

its good to see people are wealthy enough to try something like this... i really don't want to see another Beautiful Maxima die due to someone's curiosity.  

me thinks not environment. me thinks mr. clam.X)

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Acoustic

Acoustic

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well so everyone knows I will be able to tell the second my clam is doing bad. I have a friend who has a metal halide lit tank and will GLADLY take it off my hands. So no worries. I only look at my tank every 5 seconds.

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  • 4 weeks later...
TiGs

TiGs

Posted
Posted
Originally posted by Acoustic

CLAM IS STILL DOING GREAT!!!! It's growing very quickly.

 

Thats great! How many clams do you have? In the pic you posted looks like you have several other clams

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SAILFIN

SAILFIN

Posted
Posted

hmmmm the first pic of your clam is on the sand bed, now it looks as if it is on some kind of egg crate? plus i see other clams in the pic? what gives man show us your tank maybe a whole tank shot, im sure im not the only one with the suspesion that that is not the same clam or tank...........

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LiQuiD

LiQuiD

Posted
Posted

hmmmmm, this is classic. There is definitely another one above it as well as a shell ridge to the upper left. I think he forgot to mention that he bought other clams and did not want to show them off as well as that his reef tank is now a clam propogation system using egg crate to raise the clams to the light and keep the worms from chowing. Also, that he purchased a new camara that takes clearer pics and makes his light look much brighter and of different spectrum. Again, I guess he just forgot to mention all of these things.

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SAILFIN

SAILFIN

Posted
Posted

lol sounds like someone is looking for some aproval from the nano gods, with all his stories and half truths,lol all i ask to see is a full tank shot then i wont be so suspisious, of the green egg crate multi clam tank with no sand and better lighting thingie magiger,:o

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