Phosphate usage by clams

[kevster]

Hi all
I was hoping someone would be able to tell me whether maximas use an appreciable amount of phosphate? I hope to be adding a few to my system some time soon and I have a vague memory of reading somewhere that clams incorporate calcium phosphate into their shell and I was wondering if this would have a significant effect on my resisdual phosphate levels?
Thanks
Kev

 

[AttackDonut]

I have read the Giant Clams book by Daniel Knop that clams do indeed use Nitrates and to a lesser extent phosphates.

Dunno what your levels are, or what impact a clam would have however...

 

[Bayliner]

That is an interesting question.
If you find out more information please post the results back here.

Thanks
Cam

 

[kevster]

I asked a mail order clam seller over here and he didn't think they would use a tremendous amount, but if there were several of them (he may have been advising me as a potential customer at this point ) and they were of a reasonable size that they may help to deal with a residual low concentration of phosphate. This may be ideal for me as I run an ecosystem with zero nitrates but my phosphates bounce around at about 0.1ppm. With macro algaes as my only export mechanism I have a feeling that my liverock is reducing some of the nitrates and that as a result my algaes have an unbalanced diet where they are disinclined to use up the residual phosphates as they have run out of nitrates. I guess the simple way to deal with this would be to use a phosphate absorber (I have used rowa phos in the past), but I'd rather be telling the truth when I tell SWMBO that the clams are a long term economy that means I won't have to buy rowaphos again

I'll let you know how I get on