8.8 watts/gallon of VHO enough to keep Clams?

shahzad1676

New member
Hi

I have a 75 gallon SPS only tank, with about 8.8 watts/gallon of VHO's. Is this enough light to keep clams, and what kind of clams?
 
WPG means nothing to some ppl. Some have been able to keep clams under VHO's. If your sps are doing great, you could try a squamosa or derasa. Croceas and maximas require MH IMO. Personally if it were me, it's worth a shot if you really want a clam.

Be sure to keep up your Calcium (400 - 450ppm) and Alk (8.0 - 12.0dKH) levels.
 
hey do you know if i had like 9.8 watts per gallon would the clam be abel to go in the sand bed? its a 70 gallon tank the clam would be about 12 iches fromt he light if you subtract the DSB?? thanks!

Nick
 
yellowtruck75 said:
I have a derasa,maxima and a crocea under VHO and NO flourescents and they are doing great.
Good to hear your clams are great. Have you noticed any growth in them with your lighting setup?

What is your lighting setup? Just curious.
 
I have 4 48" NO and 472" VHO (not sure of all the wattage) and they are split half and half with actinics and super daylights. I have noticed extreme growth in my clams. I got my deresea in January and since then he must have grown an inch+
 
When I did my major tank reorganization a few months ago, I had planned on moving my dersa and maxima with the 250 MH lighting. However, I have been unable to move my coris wrasse out of that tank, so for the past two months the clams are living in a 48 gallon bowfront tank with heavy VHO and PC. (I also keep a carpet anemone in this tank.) The clams look great. In fact, they look a little better than they did when they were in the other tank - better mantle expansion. However, I fear that is due to less light. I have been removing them from the tank and feeding them two times each week. The dersa has white rings and is growing. But not as quickly as it was growing under the MH. It is in the middle of the tank in the rockwork. The maxima has never grown since I got it - even when it was under the MH. It had a little bit of a rough start - the purple tang kept bothering it. I keep it 3 inches from the top of the tank which is about 10 inches from the lights.

I do not recommend this. I think the clam can live but not thrive. I am planning at this point to buy a 250 MH for the other tank when the current bulbs age out.

Just my experience so far!

Connie
 
I know that all of you are probably going to yell at me, but I keep reading about all of you guys' recommendations about lighting and only having MH and stuff. I wanted to tell you about my clams. I have 1 3.5 - 4" Crocea and 2 1" Maximas under 110w PC and 18w NO in a 20g tank. The Crocea is attached to a rock approx. 14 - 16" under the lighting. The Maximas are attached approx. 6 - 8" under the lighting. I've had the Crocea about 6 months and it has put on about a 1/2" growth so far. The Maximas have been with me about 3 months and were bought when they were about 1/2" so they've doubled in size. All of the clams are beautiful and very healthy. The most profound observation that I have noted has been with the Crocea. For the first three months it was obviously NOT happy with where it was. I kept trying to help it find someplace where it was happy. It liked being on the bottom of the tank but absolutely despised the sand. It kept turning on it's side to keep it's foot off the sand. I finally put a flat rock on the sandbed and it attached almost immediately. Prior to it's attachment it had NO growth. All of the 1/2" growth I have seen on it has been in the last 3 months after it attached to the rock. The Maximas had attached within a few hours of entering the tank.

I had read a clam aquaculture instructional manual which noted that clams do not grow if they are not attached and that every time they are moved (if they are already attached and growing), that it takes 12-14 days after they attach b/f they start growing again. I had never heard that before but it did seem to correspond with what I had observed with my Crocea.

So two questions I guess.... One, has anyone else observed their clams growing better when attached than when on the sandbed and two, am I a pariah for putting clams under PCs?
 
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