Nitrates per clam?

[Scuba Dog]

Does anyone happen to know how much nitrate is bennifical for a clam, is there a range? Im shure species and size would have something to do with it. for a discusion lets say a three inch clam.......and what is the nitrate used for? decomposition for photosythesis in the mantal......or for shell production........
The reason im asking this is my system is still producing trates.......its still a young system.......20ish ppm, and im wondering if keep adding extra clams will that number diminish.....or will it benifit my bivalves?

 

[Reeftropicals]

Hi,

No, I don't think introducing clams at this point would be good. While it is true that clams do take up nitrates, 20 ppm is a little on the high side. More importantly, clams need stable water conditions in order to thrive. Their are still way too many variables that need to become more stable in your tank. Some can be measured with test kits and other can not.

Give it some time, I'd say wait till your tank is approaching about 1 year old (still very young) before introducing some clams.

Good luck!

 

[Scuba Dog]

Reeftropicals
Ooops lol i introduced some back in december..but its only febuary now, but thus far there doing quite well, but then agen clams can nose dive for the worst rather quicky......lol and Im at 8 months old now havent updated the info yet lol........mostly i was courious in a clam type fuge and wanted to know how much was bennifical or detrimental on them........

 

[firechild]

I am not sure of the recommended levels of nitrate but I was reading a book by Dr. Richard Braley and he recommends a nitrite level of below 0.5mg/L but an ammonia level of under 10mg/L. I was under the impression that this level would be toxic to clams but it seems that while most inverebrates and even fish cannot handle much more than 1mg/L, clams have a much higher threshold that allows them to uptake ammonia at high concentrations which benefits the zooxanthellae and in turn themselves. He also recommends dosing of ammonia in the form of ammonia chlorides rather than ammonia nitrate which is a more commonly used chemical because clams benefit more from ammonia than nitrate but from what I gether they can only absorb a certain amount of the combined total meaning that if they take up more nitrates they can take up less ammonia.

Note that these levels are recommended dosages and concentrations for aquaculture and not for home aquaria, these concentrations can have lethal effects on most marine invertebrates and most fish.

The reason clams absorb nitrogenous and phosphoric compounds is so they can accelerate production by the zooxanthellae. Like plants and other algae, zooxanthellae need these compounds to produce proteins, amino acids and other compounds.

If the system is young, I wouldn't recommend adding any clams. Clams require a stable system when they are added but after they are established they can handle increases in levels of nitrogenous compounds. I believe my clams are a large part of the reason for my undetectable levels of nitrate and phosphate.

 

[piercho]

Right off the top of my head, I think Knop recommends levels up to 5 meq/L nitrate. Thing is, inorganic N is going to fuel things you generally don't want to fuel like bryopsis, derbesia, and other algaes that can take over a tank in a short time if given the right conditions.

So, my opinion is that 20 ppm isn't too high for the clam, but is way too high for long-term husbandry of the tank.

My advise would be to let the tank mature until it can handle the nitrate, and let the nitrate get down to barely detectable or undetectable levels. Then think about adding a suspension food like DT's (live algae), Instant Algae (inert algae), or Knops KoralVit F (yeast) to the tank to feed the clam.

 

[firechild]

Remember that increased uptake of N and P will result in faster growth, this means that Ca and CO3 uptake will increase dramatically to keep up.