Dts, clams and no light!

jim norris

jim norris

In Memoriam
What I discovered the other day by mistake has changed my thinking about clams and lighting.
I am in the middle of setting up a new BIGGER clam tank which is taking the place of a 120 and 65 gallon tanks. I had a friend over who was helping me by taking some of my corals and clams for his tank. As I lifted a big piece of liverock he notice a clam (maxima) that had fallen SEVERAL months ago and was lost. The clam was on it's side. I picked him up and he was alive! The maxima is a plain blue color grade and is about 3 inches big. He was receiving NO light from above. He just happen to be in the very spot (but under a shelve type piece of liverock) that I pour my DTs into the tank. This clam is now in light again and looks AWESOME!
Now because of this I will be experimenting with light and DTs.
Anybody interested in helping?

Jim
 
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wow! that's awesome!! i'd love to know how your experiements come out, and let me know if i can help you. that's a really, really cool topic!
fourhand2
 
Sounds cool Jim,

I don't know much about clams.. but i'm starting to read up.. I thought that the smaller ones(juvy's) don't rely much on light and more on food during growth... and as they mature and get larger then a lot of their food comes from a light source.

I read that somewhere.. :p
 
I have a comment to supplement that. I have currently 5 clams in my tank and before I upgraded my lights they were under 2x55w of PC. All of them have shown signs of growth and all are healthy. I feed phytoplankton heavily because I also keep a dendronepthya, which is also healthy and a long term tank member. Very interesting post sir. Keep us updated.
 
You Bet Jim!

You Bet Jim!

Let me know what I can do to help the research. I'm one of those people who keeps all my clams under VHO's which every one says is a no-no. ALL of my clams including my beautiful ultra maxima are doing great and showing nice growth. Actually my squamosa isn't growing as well my maxima's, go figure. I'd be willing to help if you plan to organize something.

I'm currently wondering about the viability of a crocea clam under VHO lighting with regular phytoplankton feeding. Not sure I'm willing to risk the life of a beautiful clam to try it though.
 
I am in the midst of a major tank consolidation, but do have a number of clams and a mix of lighting, MH, PC, VHO, and NO. Depending on the configuration you want to play with I could jump on the research bandwagon.
 
Traveller7,
Do you have a tank were you can install one MH, one PC and on NO on???? I asked this because I am setting up one tank with these 3 light combos. All will light a one ft section and the fourth on a 4 ft tank will have no light. I plan on putting in each section a maxima, derasa and either a squamosa or hippopus---so all together 12 clams in one tank. I would like to fine afew people who are able to do this with me. Of course I will donate the clams for free.
I want all the tank sizes and lighting to be the same.
Thanks,
Jim
 
Sure enough....

Sure enough....

Jim,

Do we want to standardize on depth? I currently have 21"(55gal) and 31"(80gal) depths available for a dedicated system. Typically I would have them plumbed into my central system but depending what concentrations of phyto we want to test I could separate them.

It would be fairly easy for me to dedicate up to approx 200gallons for the system.

I currenlty have multiple pendant setups for MH and PC's. The NO's, HO's or VHO's would all be driven with IceCaps.

Let me know what specifics you want to configure and I will get started with the plumbing and wiring.

Scott

PS: I could also add a rack to keep the levels the distance to light the same on the 80/55 ;)
 
Scott,
I was thinking of trying to have everything exact. Like lights, tanks, and etc. But maybe that is not as good if afew of us started with the basic: one tank, section for MH, PC (or VHO), NO and no lights. I think this would explan our testing as long as the basics are the same.
What do you think?
Jim
 
Works for me..

Works for me..

Jim,

I'll likely be able to match up tank size and in the unlikely event I don't have one, I certainly could use the "in the name of science" excuse to add to the collection;)

Assuming we use the same size tanks, lights, substrate depth, and the same phyto dosage amounts we should be pretty close. You'll notice I left out skimmer, I have a few of each but I'll let you take on the next debate :)

Bottomline, you want to jump on the phone for a few minutes to coordinate systems we both have, need, and get started?
 
"donate the clams for free"???? Oh hell yeah!!! Jim, I have exactly the specs your looking for,,, send me the clams... lol
Later,
Jim
 
wouldnt it be better to havea system dedicated with NO, one for VHO, one for MH and one for no light. although the MH is kind of pointless we all kow they do good under MH.
 
Probably easier to use dedicated tanks with single lighting but then you have the issues of water parameters that could sway results.

In addition, having an MH system would be a good baseline that might actually shorten the test time. Growth rates of specimen A under MH versus specimen B under no light at all could show a greater delta in a shorter time span then specimens under VHO, PC, or NO lighting. Or maybe not, hence the need to test :D
 
Even if you use seperate tanks it would be easy to circulate the same water throughout all the tanks. You could set up several 29G tanks or even rubbermaid tubs and have one circulation system for them all. That would make it easier to isolate the lighting and still maintain consistent water chemistry
 
Squidman,
I like your idea of separate tanks all plumb into a sump of somekind! I can get several of the 20 gallon size (glass).
Thanks,
Jim
 
Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Jim,

Are you thinking of starting the system from scratch or using an established sump/system, etc?

20 gal glass tanks are fairly inexpensive and a 5th or a Rubbermaid type sump would suffice pretty well.

Most of my smaller systems are 18-24gal. acrylic but have been in service for at least 3-4 years.

Some issues I run into today are dosing equitably, due to varied flow rates (height, plumbing length, etc) and the types of critters that invariably take hold in single tanks of the 9 tank system.

Simplest solution may be to be shut down the pump/s for awhile when feeding, as that is the key test point, correct?
 
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