Am I hurting my clams

[slovan]

Hi guys,
I have 3 clams in my tank right now. I have a derasa, crocea & a squamosa. My tank is going through a phyto bloom right now. Do you think they'll be okay when I reduce the amount of hrs when the lights are on? Or would it be better to get them out of the tank and have one of my friends babysit them until my tank clears? Thanks for any help.

 

[SeanT]

A phtyo bloom?
How on earth did that happen?

 

[klasiksb]

A friend of ours had the same problem. The only way he was able to get rid of it was with a uv starilizer. Not sure what to do with your clams. I would think they would be ok on limited light for a while, just not sure that will help your problem. Good luck

 

[Fish-o-holic]

WOW what happened? And has the tank cleared somewhat since taking that pic?

 

[JustDavidP]

Holy Clam Sauce! You're gonna put the DTs folks out of business!! That's lots o greenwater.

In reality, they arn't getting a heck of a lot of light right now. If you are mechanically removing the bloom, it should get better and better every day. How much are you going to reduce the photoperiod? For how long?

 

[Meisen]

I'll take a few gallons of that! LOL your clams would love it except that its blocking so much light that they are probably not getting what they need. Be careful about fixing it to, your animals (whatever you have hidden in there) can light shock going from that to clear water again.

 

[Meisen]

Oh, so to answer your question, I would get them out a. not enough light penetrating and b. there must be some severe water quality issues in there to support that bloom. Clams like nitrate but maybe phosphorous and probably huge excesses of nitrate?

 

[Julio]

just ad some rotifiers and they will get rid of the phyto in no time.

 

[OrionN]

How mature is that thank? Looks like a bran new tank with algae cycling. Clams should not go into new tank. They need stablility of water parameters.
Minh

 

[hwynboy]

Minh took the words right out of my mouth. That tank looks brand new....your tank should be at least 6 months old to add clams...to avoid this type of thing. That bloom is horrible for the clams as the light cannot penetrate to get them. I would also make sure you have enough light for them or they will die.

 

[aquamann46]

why did you put clams in a new tank like that?
no offense