Clams as Filtration

[ox5477]

Designing up a sump and wanna put a clam or two in the refugium as filtration, along with a DSB, also some LR and chaeto. Now I have heard of people doing this and that the clams will help lower nitrates? Is that right? I know macroalgae such as chaeto will help with lowering of nitrates and phophates, but will clams do the same? Also, do they help with water clarity at all?

Any info will be appreciated... thanks!

 

[johnnybravo234]

They help but unless you have many they probably wont make a noticeable difference.

 

[IslandCrow]

Agreed 100%. Although clams do consume nitrates, unless you have a very high volume of clams, it's unlikely you'll see any difference. I also wouldn't expect any change in water clarity. Go with the macro algaes for nitrate reduction, and activated carbon for water clarity.

 

[happyclam]

How many clams would you need in say, a 100 gal reef to make a difference in lowering the nitrates? Sorry to pirate your thread.

 

[acrodave]

50+

 

[dendro982]

Tried in 10g tank, 2 young Tridacnas (<2"), no noticeable effect. Algae was much more efficient. One guy kept 14 fish in 24g nano-cube with 8 clams, if I remember right, with good results - he is a breeder. Thread had name like "14 fish in Nano-cuibe and you'll thought that I'm crazy".

 

[rgulrich]

Some light reading:

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3683872

http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=355a108200e8c96b17b97965f6af4792

And a foundation article:

http://www.spc.int/coastfish/News/Trochus/Trochus8/Trochus8-07.htm

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Ray

 

[GSMguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13302192#post13302192 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by acrodave
50+

where are you getting that number?


wouldent it depend on how high of nitrates were talking here? Also how big are the clams?

 

[IslandCrow]

I think the point is that it is generally impractical to use clams as a means of significantly reducing nitrates in a home aquarium. There are much more effective (and cheaper) methods to attain better results.

 

[acrodave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13308518#post13308518 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GSMguy
where are you getting that number?


wouldent it depend on how high of nitrates were talking here? Also how big are the clams?

just a number i pulled out the air

 

[quicksilverq]

my nitrates are 0 and I feed a good bit in my large reef tank. I only have 4 clams but they are rather large. My gigas is 10+ inches and squamosa is 8+ maxima is about 8 and my crocea is 1inch. And my nitrates have never gone up.

 

[IslandCrow]

my nitrates are 0 and I feed a good bit in my large reef tank. I only have 4 clams but they are rather large. My gigas is 10+ inches and squamosa is 8+ maxima is about 8 and my crocea is 1inch. And my nitrates have never gone up.

I don't think this is a very good basis for a conclusion that your clams have any significant effect on your nitrates. There's no control. If your nitrates went down after adding the clams, there's some correlation, but without a control, no real evidence of cause and effect. Now, do your clams have an effect on your nitrates? Most likely, but to what degree is really an unknown. I have 0 nitrates and two 4" clams, but they were also 0 when I didn't have any clams at all.

 

[quicksilverq]

well if thats the case I had a power outage for about a day 5 large blue spoted squamosas all about 8 inches died and my nitrates did go up when there were no clams left about 2 weeks untill i started to restock with clams my nitrates were up. It could of been do to things that died durring the outage but after I did water changes and what not It still seem to rise. I can tell you my nitrates were there without clams it was not a huge % but were there now I dont even have to worry about it. I would really want to know what a clam can actually pull from the water.