clams, lighting, and shrimp?

[s dubay]

Hi just need some advice i haved been pondering bying a clam either Derasa or squamosa to put in my 20G nano tank,first of all i am wondering if i have enough light.I am running 130watt PC coralfe fixture so i have 6 1/2 watts per gallon also the tank is only 14" deep with a 1'sand bed and i have had good luck keeping some SPS stag horn and montipora digitata corals alive.So is this enough light?Also since the tank is only a 20G i dont want to get a clam that gets too big,any suggestions?My only other problem may be my numerous shrimp.I have 2 cleaners,1 fire,4 sexy anemone,and 3 pepermint shrimp and i have already lost an urchin and a red reef star from my pepermint shrimp so i am wondering if these shrimp will cause any problems with a clam?All the other shrimp have never bothered anything but the peprmint seem to like to eat fleshy tissue!The urchin and the star were not 100% when i put them in the tank so i think that may have played a part with the shrimp picking on them!
Any thoughts or advice would be great
Thanks in advance
Jeremy

 

[greenfroggiespawn]

i gots a derasa... i beilieve deras and squas are the less demanding types of clams.

make sure u have enough calcium/alk, and also i belive the shrimps are okay..

i've got class adn cleaner shrimp in mine and it seems fine

give it a shot !

 

[birdie]

The clams you mentioned get huge! that was a worry of yours. The smaller clams,croceas and maximas need more light IMO. The only thing you could do is trade in your clams every couple of years. BTW the watts per gallon is a bad way to judge how much light you have. For example, if you put a maxima under 7 wpg of pc, it wouldn't do as well(and could possibly die) as a maxima under 7wpg of MH. Different PAR ratings.

Peace
Richard

 

[s dubay]

Okay well thanks for the advice but i still dont know what to do!Since all my corals and my tank in general is thriving i dont ever plan on upgrading the lights to MH and as stated i dont want a clam that gets "huge" also dont really like the idea of tradeing it in every couple years!I guess i should mabey leave out the clam!I will have to do some more thinking!
Thanks
again!

 

[jda]

Another issue with clams in nanos is that they use exorbatent amounts of calcium and carbon - especially once they hit the 3-6" range. The water volume could be too small to support the ca and alk usage without daily or twice daily supplements. This is OK as long as you are around to dose, but miss a couple of days and the clam could starve your system causing the SPS to bleach or die.

Not impossible, but needs to be considered.