T. crocea clam plan out, SPS nano in the works. Pics (no links)

cherubfish pair · #1 10/20/2007, 11:32 PM

Has anybody thought about doing a nano T. crocea clam tank?

These giant clams only get to about 6 inches and would be ideal for a nano tank.

It could be a dedicated tank. Nothing but clams!

nietzsche · #2 10/21/2007, 05:08 PM

what size of a tank? if you can keep up with the needs while providing a stable environment where salinity and other paramaters dont fluctuate, then that would be ok. i have a t.maxima, and t.crocea in my 28. i wouldnt settle for anything less than 150MH. go to the tridacnid forum on RC and ask around or read what they have

if you stress them out youll have clams spawning in the tank which would really suck.

reefman13 · #3 10/21/2007, 05:47 PM

I manually top-off a gallon per day in my 50g with a 250W MH, and my clam hasn't spawned once. I would also have to say that my parameters don't stay perfect 24/7. So cherub, I would say go for it. But I do agree you will need nothing less than a 150W MH.

checkinhawk · #4 10/21/2007, 08:21 PM

yes you can do a nano clam tank,i have a 15g cube with 9 clams in it.you must keep it stable for temp,cal,and alk to have a good chance to make it work.

cherubfish pair · #5 11/05/2007, 08:11 PM

What else would look good in a clam dominated tank?

zack85 · #6 11/05/2007, 08:59 PM

I was thinking about this for a 'tax return' gift to myself...

I have been keeping in touch with the guys at zeroedge about a package deal - it'll either be that, or a flat screen...

checkinhawk · #7 11/05/2007, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by cherubfish pair
What else would look good in a clam dominated tank?

acros

adams0816 · #8 11/06/2007, 12:26 AM

how many clams do you have in that tank?I counted 8 from the pics.

adams0816 · #9 11/06/2007, 12:26 AM

how many clams do you have in that tank?I counted 8 from the pic.

ReeferRyan · #10 11/06/2007, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by nietzsche
if you stress them out youll have clams spawning in the tank which would really suck.

Out of curiosity, why would spawning clams be a bad thing? Do they crash a tank or something? I am interested in keeping a clam but haven't really looked into it yet

zack85 · #11 11/06/2007, 12:46 AM

i count 7... but my eyes hurt from looking @ it...

ReeferRyan · #12 11/06/2007, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by checkinhawk
yes you can do a nano clam tank,i have a 15g cube with 9 clams in it.you must keep it stable for temp,cal,and alk to have a good chance to make it work.

checkinhawk · #13 11/06/2007, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by adams0816
how many clams do you have in that tank?I counted 8 from the pic.

there are 9 in the tank,one is under the koralia and isnt really visible.

AzaZeL · #14 11/06/2007, 02:13 PM

Check this out. Tank is very pretty. Great presentation

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1052751

cherubfish pair · #15 11/06/2007, 09:00 PM

checkinhawk,

Do you supplement calcium? How?

mikellini · #16 11/07/2007, 05:16 PM

What kind of clam is that orange one? A crocea? Is that very common, or rare? I've never seen orange like that...

checkinhawk · #17 11/07/2007, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by cherubfish pair
checkinhawk,

Do you supplement calcium? How?

i used to run a reactor but now i just dose with oceans blend 2 part.

checkinhawk · #18 11/07/2007, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mikellini
What kind of clam is that orange one? A crocea? Is that very common, or rare? I've never seen orange like that...

not rare at all just a normal derasa from top down,they tend to look orangeish from the top.

InLimbo87 · #19 11/07/2007, 06:02 PM

My previous tank wasn't a "clam only" tank, but I did have one Crocea. It did quite well at the top of my rockwork under a 150w sunpod (they're light hungry, thats for sure)

Ocean In A Box · #20 11/07/2007, 09:45 PM

checkinhawk -

awesome looking clam tank...or i should say, awesome looking tank in general. nice.

NanoReefWanabe · #21 11/08/2007, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ReeferRyan
Out of curiosity, why would spawning clams be a bad thing? Do they crash a tank or something? I am interested in keeping a clam but haven't really looked into it yet

well i honestly cant say i wouldn't like to see a tank full of "Clam Chowder" if you know what mean...once one clam squirts they will all likely start to squirt...it is messy enough outside of the tank let alone in a closed system...(i was referring to in the ocean, by outside of the tank...you dirty minded reefers...)LOL

but to get to the short of it...yes clam spawn will kick your skimmer into over drive likely creating a flood...the water parameters will get thrown way out of wack...and, well it is just very dirty.....

one or two clams should be nothing to worry about in any tank...as spawning events are very few and far between..unless the clam senses trouble and a survival instinct kicks in causing it to spawn...(or so i have read)

BTW that is a beautiful tank

cherubfish pair · #22 11/10/2007, 10:25 PM

checkinhawk,

Have you run into any spawning problems?

cherubfish pair · #23 11/17/2007, 07:48 PM

Well, I started to read my book: Giant Clams by Daniel Knop, inventor of the Knop calcium reactors, and he stated two things that are a concern if I am to keep a crocea dominated tank.

First, giant clams can't have too much flow because it would ruffle up and dog ear their mantle flap, the part that sticks out when the clam opens up. It acts as a solar panel for their symbiotic algae.

The tank I designed will have an oceans motions wavemaker which will generate too much flow for a clam tank.

Second, clam tanks should not be over-skimmed. I'll be using a heavily modded ASM skimmer that I already have because it's one of my babies and I can't part with it. Clams need to draw a little nitrate out of the water, so this skimmer would compete with the clams for nitrate removal, so as to starve them of nitrate.

I'm glad I dug that book out of storage and did a little research because the clam plan would have been a disaster.

cherubfish pair · #24 11/21/2007, 08:40 PM

OK, it might seem I've been flip-flopping on this, but I'm changing the theme of my system in the works to an SPS dominated nano.

I didn't think I could go into SPS. Well with the 40 long I had all planned out couldn't support SPS because of too low light and low flow.

After throwing out the clam plan and seeing pictures of SPS in nano tanks, I thought SPS in nanos would be taking the hobby into an extreme challenge. Plus the beauty of these animals finally caught my eye.

I determined SPS was the way to go and SPS in a nano was even better. I could also have the other stuff I want in the same tank. So... It was easy to visualize all the equipment and all the layout of what the 40 gallon was to be, and squeezing it all into a smaller tank.

This squeezing will give me 30 times + of water turn over per hour and 15 watts + per gallon of light. And, my ASM G3, my 16" sump/refugium, JBJ 1/15 chiller, and top-off reservoir will all fit in my stand. My 6 gallon JBJ for quarantine and salt mixing will fit on my stand next to the display. In other words, I'm taking this new system to the max.

NanoReefWanabe · #25 11/21/2007, 11:18 PM

i too am going SPS Mainly tank...i wouldn't say dominated as i have far to many zoos that i cant part with...but i have only 3 softies let in my tank a florida ric, a yuma and gsp...the rest is a green a red and a purple monti cap, a green a purple/tan and an orange monti digi, a blue tipped stag. a pink and prple birdsnest, a yellow and green mille. a relly funky birdsnest that has a rainbow of colours to it, and some sort of green acro. and a yellow cup coral.

sounds like your planning your system out far batter then i did...i wish you best of luck...i am in awe of my sticks everyday now...i am sure you will be too..