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As one of the original folks posting/experimenting in this thread, I can say that the little clams reduced the nitrates and cleaned up the water in my experimental tanks rather well- I used littleneck as well as manilas, and both types lived over a year and did quite nicely....
One of the tanks I never did any water changes on- it had an Eibbl Angel, Yellow tang, snails, hermits and nothing but a small Millenium wet/dry with a surface skimming attachment and no carbon. (just the mini wet/dry sipping it's air and an empty carbon cartridge to catch debris which I rinsed occasionally)
I'm a firm believer in giving nature a chance to do the work itself- just point it in the right direction and nature can do the rest. It's been working since the planet formed, after all....I use multiple techniques to achieve water quality including sump/'fuge with deep sand bed, undergravel, wet/dry, mangroves....I think every little bit does it's part to achieve a greater whole. (Uh- or something like that....) With a little nudging (cleaning overflows, water changes, chemical/mechanical filtration, RO/DI top off, etc.) my systems do pretty well- with minimal maintenance.
Not all of this hobby is exact science! And some of the science is still relatively new or as yet undiscovered....Look at how little of the ocean we've explored as yet in our 'modern times', as well as the fact that new species are constantly being discovered! Food for thought!
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CCPMC of HETMARC
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