Crocea in a 6.5 gallon?

[Michael L.]

I currently making a homemade custom 10 gallon AIO (6.5 gallon display) reef and I'm thinking about adding a small crocea to it once it's built. I've kept a crocea healthy for the last 9 months in a 90 gallon with (2) 150W halides and understand the problems that can be associated with clams in small tanks, but think I can handle the work.

Here's some tank info:

6.5 Gallon Display (approx. 11"X13"X10")
3.5 Gallon In-Tank Sump
Small Refugium w/Chaeto (in-sump)

Quiet One 300GPH Return Pump (w/ 2 output lines)
AquaClear 10 Powerhead

(4) X 18W PC Lighting Over Display ((2) 10,000K, (2) Actinic
Coralife Polished Aluminum Reflectors
Small Fuge Light (Undecided)

25W Heater
(1) 4" Fan for Lighting
(1) 4" Fan for Over Tank
Kent Aquadose w/Kalkwasser for Topoff

So, do you think I could keep a small Crocea healthy less than 6" away from 72W of PC light with heavy Kalk dosing? I would probably end up moving it to my coral grow tank once it started to outgrow this little one.

The grow tank is a 55 gallon with 2X250W Halides and Kalk, so I don't think I'd have any trouble keeping a clam in there once the time came.

 

[Jeff]

I think that it would waste away to nothing after a few weeks. Even if you had decent lighting and supplimented calcium correctly it would grow and choke itself out.
Not enough lighting or room. Croceas are hard to keep.

 

[Michael L.]

Really? As far as space goes, I could definitely fit a mid-sized Crocea in there with room for other inhabitants. And lighting? It's 72W and I could have the clam as little as a 3 or 4 inches below water. At that depth, light penetration wouldn't be much of a concern, so I would estimate (with no scientific bases, a completely wild guess) it would put off about the equivilant light as say, 50W of metal halide lighting. Assuming that is somewhat accurate, and considering that I had a healthy Crocea under 150W metal halide at 12", this little tank has that light-depth equivalent beat. At 3", it would be the equivalent to 200W MH at 12".

Then again, light penetration changes at different depths, and I have no clue how PC compares to MH (aside from how MH penetrates deeper than PC), so I could be completely wrong.

So, does anyone else have any input? If not, I won't put a Crocea in.

Also, are there any less light demanding trid. clams out there that could work in this tank?