Clam Peeps! Need Some Advice!

[RIP Sebastian]

Hello there everyone,
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For those of you who don't know, I have a Nuvo 30L that is slightly under a year old and is lit by a Nanobox Quad.
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I have made previous posts on other forums about my parameters, and they have been steadily improving. Here they are as of today:
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Cal:390 (it's a little low)
Alk: 10.9 (high, but better than the 13 it was at. It's stable there, too)
Mag:1600 (high)
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The reason for the slightly unbalanced parameters is that I have been doing more water changes than usual due to a minor cyano issue that has since been resolved. They should be back to normal within two weeks.
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Other than clowns, one of the reasons I was drawn to this hobby was clams. I've been doing a lot of research as of late and was having a hard time finding some definitive answers to some of my questions. I know many of you have been incredibly successful with clams, so I figured that I would ask you guys.
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1. What clam do you recommend starting with? I've heard Deresas are a good place to start, but, in my opinion, they aren't very pretty.
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2. Where do you have yours in your tank? I know that different clams like different things to attach to. Where do you place your Maximas? Higher or lower on the rock?
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3. How much of an impact on your parameters did adding a clam have (cal, alk, mag wise)? I've been working on getting my params stable and probably won't add one until they are-this is wise, no? Or am I over-thinking this?
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4. Have any of you bought and raised clams less than three inches? If so, how hard is it to feed them and how often do you? The majority of the ones my LFS has are less than three inches.
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5. What is your experience with GFO and clams?
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Thanks and Happy Holidays,
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Nick

 

[MondoBongo]

derasas get big, and they get big fairly fast. i wouldn't recommend one for a 30L tank. you should probably be looking at smaller species like crocea, maybe a maxima but they get fairly large as well.

different clams go different places. my derasa is on the sand, my crocea is at the highest point in the rock work. other clams are different.

the suck down alk and cal like no ones business when they're happy. kalk, two part, cal reactor, etc... are all good options to help stabilize the params. i would probably recommend starting with kalk, and moving on from there as your needs rise.

don't feed clams. it's not necessary. different tridacna species filter feed to varying extents, however with the exception of Tridacna gigas, none of the other Tridacna species get much of their carbon from filter feeding. they will adsorb some nutrients directly from the water, such as nitrates.

i am running gfo with no issues. i use a filter sock on my output to catch any fine particles of gfo that may have escaped the reactor.

 

[RIP Sebastian]

derasas get big, and they get big fairly fast. i wouldn't recommend one for a 30L tank. you should probably be looking at smaller species like crocea, maybe a maxima but they get fairly large as well.

different clams go different places. my derasa is on the sand, my crocea is at the highest point in the rock work. other clams are different.

the suck down alk and cal like no ones business when they're happy. kalk, two part, cal reactor, etc... are all good options to help stabilize the params. i would probably recommend starting with kalk, and moving on from there as your needs rise.

don't feed clams. it's not necessary. different tridacna species filter feed to varying extents, however with the exception of Tridacna gigas, none of the other Tridacna species get much of their carbon from filter feeding. they will adsorb some nutrients directly from the water, such as nitrates.

i am running gfo with no issues. i use a filter sock on my output to catch any fine particles of gfo that may have escaped the reactor.

Wonderful. Thank you.

 

[MondoBongo]

Oh I should add, I'm still considering gfo use to be in the experimental phase. I've seen people report issues with it, but another member on here suggested I try running it with a filter sock on the output of the reactor.

Previously I had only left it in the sump in media bags.

So far so good, though I've been a bit of trouble getting my reactor tuned to tumble how I like it. It's been a few weeks now, we'll see if anything changes when I get the reactor flowing better.

 

[RIP Sebastian]

Thank you!

 

[Silly clownfish]

Hi Nick,

Good specific questions!

I only have one clam, a maxima that I purchased last March, so I don't have that much clam experience, but am happy to share my findings.

I started with a maxima because -yep, they are pretty clams and stay smaller than most. I wasn't having much luch getting a crocea locally, my LFS owner is very picky about where he will order clams from and if what he was seeing didn't meet his criteria, I wouldn't want it.

My maxima is near the bottom of my tank (Reefbreeder Photon set to about 70% at noon). Knowing how big they can get I was afraid if I put it higher in the tank, as it grew the rockwork would get more and more topheavy and unstable. My serpent star can be a jerk about moving things, and my foxface can be clumsy. The idea of a falling rock scared me too much.

My tank parameters were very stable with a 12g water change every other week (Reef Crstals with 2 Tbsp of turbo calc because I don't like the RC level of calcium) and kalk in my ATO. I was at alk-9, Ca 450, Mg1320. After adding the clam, I have been struggling lately with Alk dropping. In fairness my SPSs, especially my red cap monti, have had significant growth spurts since then too. I have decided I need to start dosing the alkalinity part of 2 part and ordered a dosing pump. I think If I keep adding turbo calc to my change water I will be ok with this for a while. I suspect I will need to add both components of 2 part eventually.

My clam was about 3" when I got it. It is close to 4" now. It is partly shaded by the red cap, which I keep pruning back, but the clam has actually shifted so that one side of it is below the red cap. Kind of annoys me becasue ti has mor room to shift the opposite direction...

I don't feed my clam or corals on a regular basis. But I also don't rinse my frozen food figuring the juices are food for filter feeders (and I am lazy). If I have a new coral I sometimes feed a little bit of reef chili to help it out. Plus the jar I have seems like it will last forever until I use it.

I have GFO & activated carbon in a bag in my sump. Just a few spoonfuls of each. That is the extent of my chemical filtration. i have almost no algae in the display (foxface) and not much in the sump. So I don't feel a need for more, but I don't want to rock the boat by removing it completely.

Kim