Clams and GFO

kriv4o

New member
I read on another board that keeping clams in a system that runs GFO is a no no. Something to do with iron levels making the clams more vulnerable to parasites IIRC.
I'd like to hear your opinions because I wanted to add a clam to my system in the near future and I use GFO for phos. removal
 
I've not heard that before. I have a clam and I run GFO. I would imagine that the problem to begin with is the parasites and not so much the vulnerability of the clam due to heightened iron levels. I would definitely be intrigued to hear what others say though.
 
I have a Crocea Clam whose foot is attached to a small piece of rock which is sitting in my sandbed. I have had this clam for about a year now and it is about 4 1/2 inches in size.
 
I fluidise Rowa Phos. I also dose Kent Marine's chelated iron supplement to boost chaeto growth in my sump. This combination has not had any negative effects on my clams for the past few years. The growth is very satisfactory.
 
I'm also running GFO, just starting out, and I just recently added a clam. so fay the clam has great mantle expansion and looks better than it did at the store, but I am going to try to research this a little more to make sure it'll be ok for the long run.
 
I used to run GFO. Added a clam and it died. Added a second clam and it died. Stopped running GFO and added a third clam which has been living for over a year now. I'm not saying that the GFO killed the first two clams; I'm just sharing my experience with clams and GFO. Maybe the GFO pulled so much phosphate from my tank that the clams were unable to survive?
 
We ran GFO in our 210 with 4 clams for over 2 years and no issue. We still have 2 of them in our nano also running GFO for the past 9 months and no issues whatsoever.
 
I run gfo in my 90gal, and all three clams has been alive since I added them a year ago. They range from 2" to 5" when I got them.
 
For those of you that run GFO with your clams and have had trouble:

Are you rinsing the media before adding it to your reactor to rid it of any fine particles/dust that can make it into your system and irritate the clam(s)?

I had 6 clams (3 Maxima, 1 Crocea, 2 Derasa) in my last tank and noticed the first few times I ran GFO that my clams would retract and started to deteriorate. After learning to thoroughly rinse the GFO media in RODI water before being placed in the reactor, I noticed a marked improvement in clam mantle extension and coloration.
 
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