New clam tank

[quantim0]

i'm starting my first clam and LPS tank and here's what i have planned out at the moment. 36x18x18 50g tank with a 29g sump. i am going to have 2 65 or 96 watt powercompacts to simulate dawn and dusk. the main lighting will be a 400w halide german 10k. a deep sand bed will be used to keep nitrates below 10ppm. i'm getting 40 lbs of aquacultured liverock. Nautalus (sp?) skimmer on for a few days a week. i want to be able to keep all of the clam species hence the 400w halide.

fish will consist of a six line wrasse and some baggi cardinals. also a whole bunch of astrea snails and hermit crabs.

i am going to let the tank sit without clams, fish or corals for about 6 months. leaving a clean up crew to handle the algae and other detritus.

is there anything here that sounds out of whack or anything i'm missing in terms of equipment. (i've done my reading ) thanks everyone.

 

[cromax]

Everything sounds good in theory. Go ahead and take the plunge! As you have already read, make sure you meet each clams' lighting requirements and acclimate them accordingly. With that much light over the tank, you are borderline making lava if your MH is too close.

When you say hermit crabs, I assume you mean "reef safe" scarlets and other small algae eating hermits. Personally, I don't trust anything with the word "crab" in it near my clams.

Consider a juvenile specimen of Coris Gaimard for your tank. He'll control a number of parasites that will try to kill your clam. One of his favorite escargot dishes is pyramidillae!

Six lines never did anything good for me except look pretty. Mr. Gaimard is the way to go if you have a high clam population. Good Luck.

 

[cromax]

If you don't already have it, get Knop's book. aka The Clam Bible.

 

[quantim0]

yeah, i did mean the small herbivorous crabs. i actually upped the tank volume to a 65 which is 6" taller but i figure that i have the lighting to handle another 6" of height. the lights are going to be at least a foot off the top of the tank. there isn't a top and i'm getting some type of fan to blow across the surface of the water to aid in cooling.

most of my reading is Knopps book. i heard so many things about it i had to get it.