just curious

clamz

New member
i am currently thinking of setting up a ten gallon, with a five gallon to hold live rock and dsb for a sump, and i was wandering if anyone thought that this could be an enviornment that clams could flourish in. i would be using two 24 in no bulbs for the 40 watts, and the ten is not real deep. this is the only thing that i can think of within my budget. clams are the reason i began but after getting a good deal on a 120 i figured out very fast that the lighting to keep clams and sps would cost about 5 times more than i paid for the tank. any help would be appreciated.

please send private message as i don't log on daily, thanks
 
It's all about the light, sorry to say. These things live in direct tropical sunshine in shallow water. I wish I could tell you what you want to hear, but I can't. I might be ok with high-output flourescents, but I don't think you will succeed with regular bulbs. Just think of the light intensity - tropical sunshine is 10,000 lumens of full-spectrum lighting. A regular 40w flourescent is somewhere around 2600 lumens - with much of those lumens not directed down towards the tank (you need to reflect them down, which reduces intensity significantly). A 175watt halide bulb is around 13,000 lumens initially, so a clam directly under a 175 watt bulb is probably close to natural lighting (assuming proper light spectrum, etc). Water depth and clarity has a huge impact as well.

A final note - if it makes you feel better, metal halide lights are about 50% more efficient than regular flourescent lights (i.e. you get about 50% more light per watt).
 
so pc would be better, i don't know i just thought it was the watt per gallon ratio and that 40 watts on a 10 gallon, i guess i need to read through knop again.

i also thought that it had more to do with the kelvin value more than the lumens.

thanks
 
BonsaiNut

BonsaiNut

Looks like we have at least two hobbies in common, How long have you kept Bonsai. Got any Pics? Don't the two seem very similiar, especially when you have to trim your corals back in smaller tanks, while still trying to keep a natural look representive of a full size coral.
Anyway, do you think I could get away with a Squamosa under 130wtPCs the tank is a 29gl, with a DSB about 18" from the lights. I'm thinking about placing it on hte rockwork about 6" under the lights, and with consitent feeding I thought one may be able to thrive. What do you think?
 
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