Crazy for Clams

[NAS]

Hi Mark,

Hey sorry got a little side tracked.

Yes it is a bit odd that Im considering dosing with nitrates. It comes down to two things. need and reliability. If in time i need to boost the nitrates I want the most reliable means. My lab associate is arranging for some reagent grade sodium nitrate to try out.

Yes,

I have come to a final decision on the clam tank. Im going with a plan similar to your suggestions from a few weeks ago. Im looking to custom design something on the order of 30*36(or 48 if the boss lets me) with a height of 18 inches. Drilled on two corners. Plus i think I have a means to control the surface aggitation better then the dar waterfall design.

Give me a ring this weekend if you have time. Come check out my sad clam.

[mseepman]

Sounds good, I think I'll do that!

[michika]

Do you have a picture of the squamosa in question? I'm really curious to watch this develop over time. Maybe photos of all your clams so later on down the road you can show changes through some time-lapsed photos.

I know practically nothing on the Nitrate dosing front. I've heard some stuff here and there, but I've never really searched for any academic publications on it. If anyone has any, I'd be really interested to find how it is that clams use nitrates, or how it is that we know they are using them.

[NAS]

I will forward what I have when i get the site again. I printed it out and moved on... forgot the paper. It is a thesis out of the states on clam bleaching.

I don't really think you need to dose the nitrate unless you have a zero measure with lots of clams. Im guessing that it ma be a bit risky if one screws up... I have calculated the dosage for the whole tank to end up at 10 ppm. I plan to start at 1/4 dose or so... and se what happens.

[NAS]

Back Again!

My last posting on this whole shingding was in March, Sorry lots has gone on since... but back now.

Ok,
First, the bleached clam. I have pictures some where that I will put up shortly. Since the last post the clam had progressed to more white then any other color. I was very distressed.

I continually dosed my tank with water from our predator tank (40-80 ppm nitrates), weekly a 20% water change (adding dirty water! yes takein clean out) This seemed to arrest the color loss, and very slowly started to turn it arround. VERY SLOWLY. So in frustration I added a second 250w metal halide with a new bulb in the old m/h. Both at 14000K.

HOLLY CRAP! The color is back, and not just back it's darker then when I got the clam. There is even Black banding coming up in the tissue of the Squamosa. New pics to come. Every thing is just poping.

There were two casualties, I had a heat surge that cooked out my accro's, and one weak clam. But I also gaind a fantastic maxima in the mean time so im only down one.

more to come latter today.

[mseepman]

Excellent news Scott! So it turns out that bulbs do need to be changed every now and then...

Sorry to hear about the acros...never fun to lose coral.

[NAS]

Yup,

it really a marked improvement. There were some side effects, biggest of all was that the majority of my mushroom's crawled to the under side of the rocks, so they are harder to see now. but still the key is that the Clams are the focus.

I was down in vancouver last week... on the way out I poped into the aquarium. They have a spectacular gigas specium there. I want it, LOL

my clam tank is better though....
So it has re-kindled my gigas goal of a large clam tank.. I am considering collapsing my tang/ angel tank and selling it to front a much larger tank... Wooo, i am actually anquishing on this.


In any event, I agin am at a turning point for my clam tank. Things are gettin too big now and starting to interfere with each outher. I am stittin at over an inch and a half growth since february 2008 on my squamosa. Every thing else except the large crocea are showing strong growth.

I am going to re-decorate the tank structure soon, and possibly cull some of the rock from the tank...

I will have before and after pics.