phytoplankton

[fishy332003]

can phyto reproduce in your tank when you feeding your clams. when i feed my clams a week ago. my water is very clear.now my tank is light green. can phyto over popular in my tank. my clams is very happy though. i haven't feed them since then.is this green water is ok.or i have to do some water change?

 

[ezcompany]

depending on your filtration system, phytoplankton can reproduce in your tank.
if your tank is a light green, i would hold on the feeding a bit until it clears. if you start seeing algal issues, i would go ahead and do a good sized water change.

 

[a4twenty]

also are you running a skimmer??

 

[fishy332003]

no skimmer in this tank. i didn't feed them for a while. i guess they have plenty phyto in the tank to keep the clams happy.

 

[jadeguppy]

How much rock in the tank? I have found that too little rock will cause phyto outbreaks, aka green water. Sorry, I don't have a copy of the article about it. Your tank probably had extra phosphates that the phyto are now using and will continue to use as some die and others grow. What other bioload is in the tank?

 

[gavinthefish]

Get a skimmer and that may help, you can feed more with a good skimmer.

 

[howeroll]

Unless the clam is under 2" phytoplankton will just cause more problems (hair algae, red slime etc) than good. If the clam is under 2" you need to target feed them anyways. IMO

 

[IslandCrow]

Actually, having to target feed clams under 2" is much more myth than fact. First of all, a 2" gigas is in a very different stage of life than a 2" crocea. Second, you should never target feed any clam. It's just not healthy for them.

On the other hand, I agree that you don't have to feed the tank phytoplankton in order to keep a clam healthy. 99% of the tanks out there have plenty of food in the water column for the clam. Like Jin said, let the water clear before you add any more phytoplankton, and then if you decide you want to continue adding phyoplankton (I'm a fan of feeding my tank phyto, personally), once the water clears, try again with half your normal feeding.

 

[clamdigs]

I think you have to feed clams. It just needs to fall inside of the nanoplankton or 2-35 micron size range (preferably inside the 2-15 size range). Plus as long as it has ANY nutritional value what-so-ever. If you are using a specific brand, look at the bottle to see how it compares to like Reed Maricultures 50% protein and 15% fat shellfish diet (those numbers are NOT missing decimals - and that's what it was last time I checked).

Clams use the food that they get from the Zooxanthellae during the day plus the nitrogen and ammonium they are feeding off of in the water. At night, the Zooxanthellae are not feeding the clam and they are even taking up a small amount of nitrogen or ammonium themselves. That on top of the fact that a clams shell is made to stay open and it takes a TREMENDOUS amount of effort to hold it shut to protect it's mantle for around 8-11 hours at night - were might the energy to hold itself shut, be coming from? I noticed that over a period of 3 days, the phyto that they store in their digestive tract usually dissolves by about 85% and does it quicker at night.

It's just not very much fun to measure.

When it comes to the green water, most phytoplankton mixes aren't going to reproduce. It could be about twenty different factors. How big is the tank? How long has it been running? What kind of filtration? How old are the bulbs? Is there any other alga in the tank? Could be gelbstoff (which most people won't see) if the tank is a couple years old, smaller and have no filtration.......who knows.