How necessary is a Calcium Reactor

[amundine]

Hello Everyone,
I'm not ready to try Giant Clams, but one day I hope to be. It seems to me that these creatures are going to require a great deal of Calcium to support healthy shell growth. Is it possible to keep them thriving in a 90G with a medium sized reef and low fish load (few gobies, jaws, and a maroon clown with supplemental additives and Kalk? Or is a Calcium Reactor "the only way to go" with a few clams in the tank. Eventually I'd like to have one of just about each except perhaps the gigas.

 

[JetCat USA]

you can be very successful with any Ca/Alk additive as long as you keep the tank at acceptable levels and Stable. when they get larger then football size they start to cause stability problems in systems even with Ca reactors so you dose Kalk and 2part additives to help keep levels up and pH stable.

might i ask, what is it about Giga's you don't like??

 

[a4twenty]

Re: How necessary is a Calcium Reactor

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10736311#post10736311 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by amundine
Hello Everyone,
I'm not ready to try Giant Clams, but one day I hope to be. It seems to me that these creatures are going to require a great deal of Calcium to support healthy shell growth. Is it possible to keep them thriving in a 90G with a medium sized reef and low fish load (few gobies, jaws, and a maroon clown with supplemental additives and Kalk? Or is a Calcium Reactor "the only way to go" with a few clams in the tank. Eventually I'd like to have one of just about each except perhaps the gigas.

a reactor is not necessary but will make it easier as opposed to daily / multi-daily dosing of two part or kalk. of course each of those can be made a little easier by using dosing pumps or a kalk reactor for top up. good call on the gigas as they grow quite large and fast and would surely outgrow a 90G tank, even a derasa might become a problem in the smaller tank. just start slow, test often and remember stability is more important than having exact params.

 

[JetCat USA]

Re: Re: How necessary is a Calcium Reactor

Re: Re: How necessary is a Calcium Reactor

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10737707#post10737707 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by a4twenty
............ good call on the gigas as they grow quite large and fast and would surely outgrow a 90G tank, even a derasa might become a problem in the smaller tank.

and how long does it take a Giga or a Derasa to become large enough to cause a problem with a smaller tank like a 90??

 

[a4twenty]

Re: Re: Re: How necessary is a Calcium Reactor

Re: Re: Re: How necessary is a Calcium Reactor

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10737902#post10737902 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JetCat USA
and how long does it take a Giga or a Derasa to become large enough to cause a problem with a smaller tank like a 90??

that's an easy one. you already answered it, in this thread too.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10736886#post10736886 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JetCat USA
when they get larger then football size they start to cause stability problems in systems even with Ca reactors ......

now if i remember correctly, the author is asking about getting away without a calcium reactor. if he wants to keep one of each clam in a 90G but is worried about Ca, to me the logical clam to omit would be the fastest / largest growing.

 

[JetCat USA]

pay attention, i asked YOU how long does it take say a 3" Gigas and a Derasa to reach that size? as we've already been down the road on your experience with clams I'm curious about your answer, don't try to put it off, answer please.

 

[tmz]

Sorry,your thread appears to have been hijacked . I don't think you need a calcium reactor. I use one along with kalkwater and occasionaly calcium chloride and buffer but you could easily maintain an apropriate calcium level without one. Calcium reactors have their own set of issues to manage. There are some excellent articles on the reef chemistry forum by Randy Homes Farley on calcium and other reef chemistry stuff and you may wan't to study them before you choose a method that's best for you.

Starting out with clams I'd be more conerned about adequate lighting than a calcium reactor

 

[skinz78]

amundine
Some people are realitivly lucky and have tanks that mysteriously hold a higher calcium level with no additives at all. I have in my tank a mixture of crushed coral and live gulf sand, and arround 150 lbs of gulf rock. I now have 14 clams by accident and I admit I have to part with some. The rock I have isn't the most desireable. And I don't know why for sure but the rock and sand is my best guess as to why the high level. But for some reason my calcium level stays at arround 500 ppm. I use salifert test kits and have had 3 other hobbyists check my level with thier kits and all came out the same. Now my ph and alk I have to watch like a hawk they do fluxuate from day to day, and I do dose with seachem reef buffer and reef builder. My lfs has 12 reef tanks and they too have one that needs no ca added for some unexplainable reason.

This is just my experience and my $.02. Clams are very intrigueing and I think it is a waste of a reef tank when people have none.

I think you will just have to try a clam or 2 and see what your level of calcium does, each and every tank is different. And like twenty said a doseing pump is an alternative to a reactor if dayly dosing becomes too much to keep up. I have a doseing pump ready just in case it becomes a problem for my tank. And if that fails I will have to get the reactor.

 

[skinz78]

JetCat USA
One of my first clams I purchased as a derasa, and it totally looked like a derasa to me until last week when I decided I needed just 1 more. When I purchased the first clam almost a year ago it was only 1.5"now it is almost 4.5". When the second clam came last week I put it next to the first clam I already had. They look identical except for the first one opens wider and it has a smooth inhalent siphon hole and the second clam has a ruffled fringe on the inhalent siphon.

A dim little lightbulb swiched on in my head, I had a gigas and didn't even know it. So in my dim whitted experience of nearly 1 year a baby gigas grows approximatly 3". And my guestimate as to how long it will be until that clam is football size is 3 to 4 years.

 

[JetCat USA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10740525#post10740525 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by skinz78
And my guestimate as to how long it will be until that clam is football size is 3 to 4 years.

no after they get to 6-7 inches they put on a load of mass rather then diameter growth, their shell really thickens up and their weight significantly increases for the next Several yrs with minimal growth in overall size. it takes about 8 yrs for a Gigas to get football size, 10+ for a Derasa, a Squamy reaches that size in about 6 yrs. once they get to around football size all of them start to get wide rather then increasing in circumference.

very few people will ever keep one (let alone more then one) in a 90g tank till it outgrows it because they start to put such a high demand on Ca/Alk that it's a struggle to keep water chemistry stable and when they get that size they bring a nice $$$ so they are easy to pass along to people with the 500+ systems. I've been in this hobby for a good number of yrs and seen allot of huge systems in my travels but I've never seen a tank raised clam of any type that was larger then about 14" and a 14" clam will fit cozy into a standard 90g tank.

 

[Bebo77]

i dont have one on on my 300g... all depends on what your tank needs...

 

[amundine]

Thanks everyone for the replies, I appreciate it. Jetcat, I'm inclined to stay away from Gigas because of it's likely to outgrow my tank. I'd like to upgrade to a 210 in the next few years and I'll revisit the idea of having a Gigas then. In the mean time I'll continue to learn what I can so that when I do make the commitment to keeping clams I can have them thrive, not just survive. Thanks again everyone!
Drew

 

[mbbuna]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10738963#post10738963 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JetCat USA
pay attention, i asked YOU how long does it take say a 3" Gigas and a Derasa to reach that size? as we've already been down the road on your experience with clams I'm curious about your answer, don't try to put it off, answer please.

nice attitude

 

[ezcompany]

feisty!

"no after they get to 6-7 inches they put on a load of mass rather then diameter growth, their shell really thickens up and their weight significantly increases for the next Several yrs with minimal growth in overall size. it takes about 8 yrs for a Gigas to get football size, 10+ for a Derasa, a Squamy reaches that size in about 6 yrs. once they get to around football size all of them start to get wide rather then increasing in circumference."

can i see the reference for further reading?