Lighting for clam only tank

kwroberto

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I'm starting a 55 gallon clam only tank....would 1 250 watt metal halide be enough light?? What color temp would you recommend?? Thanks!!
 

hart24601

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I personally would use wicked strong LEDs. Clams don't self shade like SPS do which is always my concern with LEDs and stony coral, so that is good to go. Plus if you have a controller you can set it for nice white light for a few hours and then go more blue if that is what you like later on in the day.
 
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maroun.c

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one 250 MH would definitely do it. I'm runing 14k.
 

soggytees

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This is a really cool idea! I hope you'll keep us posted and maybe start a build thread!! :thumb:
 

hart24601

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I would caution against throwing as much light on them as you can. I have read that advanced aquarist article with the photoinhibition, but in my experience a huge amount of light doesn't make them very happy for our viewing. Keeping maxima and crocea under super intense lighting, around 1000+ PAR at the shell (I think only practical under LED) they will be open for a while, but when they have their fill they close up. So for an hour or two they are open and happy, but then they start closing up after that and don't make for a very fun tank to look at with the clams shut. I kept some like this but eventually decreased intensity so I could see them open more when I got home from work.

Now if you are looking at keeping other species besides the above two you definitely don't want too much light. Now keep in mind I am calling too much light levels over 500 PAR. Here is some research on squamosa, and they found it was best to provide around 10% shade to them in growing conditions despite the fact clams can close up to get away from light:

http://download.springer.com/static...866_b45fdc0ba6349d20835cb3ac377e6c62&ext=.pdf
 

Aqua fire/medic

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Very cool idea. If you already have the 250w halide then just throw it on there. What will be the dimensions of the tank?
 

Sangheili

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I would caution against throwing as much light on them as you can. I have read that advanced aquarist article with the photoinhibition, but in my experience a huge amount of light doesn't make them very happy for our viewing. Keeping maxima and crocea under super intense lighting, around 1000+ PAR at the shell (I think only practical under LED) they will be open for a while, but when they have their fill they close up. So for an hour or two they are open and happy, but then they start closing up after that and don't make for a very fun tank to look at with the clams shut. I kept some like this but eventually decreased intensity so I could see them open more when I got home from work.

Now if you are looking at keeping other species besides the above two you definitely don't want too much light. Now keep in mind I am calling too much light levels over 500 PAR. Here is some research on squamosa, and they found it was best to provide around 10% shade to them in growing conditions despite the fact clams can close up to get away from light:

http://download.springer.com/static...866_b45fdc0ba6349d20835cb3ac377e6c62&ext=.pdf

Your link is broken. Very interested in checking it out. Do you think maybe the clams closed because your spectrum was harming them? Ive seen some research showing that too much Red spectrum stunts the growth of some SPS. It could also be that they were not adjusted to the light if you didn't try this for that long. Maybe it takes weeks/months for them to properly regulate their Zoox.
 

hart24601

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Your link is broken. Very interested in checking it out. Do you think maybe the clams closed because your spectrum was harming them? Ive seen some research showing that too much Red spectrum stunts the growth of some SPS. It could also be that they were not adjusted to the light if you didn't try this for that long. Maybe it takes weeks/months for them to properly regulate their Zoox.

To the OP, I think that light will be great for the clams! The rest of this could be confusing, but I like talking about my favorite reef animal!

Sangheili, the red spectrum and or regulation of the zoox is very possible, but I notice the same thing with all the clams I have had in really high light systems, but just not as obvious as when I really went all out. I remember reading Zeph from nano reef with his clams and MH lighting had the clams also gradually close up throughout the day when he added a ton of MH lighting too. Even now in my system the clams start the day with very wide extension and gradually close - I just have the light not that intense (300PAR) so it's just a little closed by the end of the day, but they still do it. That is a maxima, squamosa and derasa, when I had a crocea it didn't seem to close up, just a small amount when it was in the ultra high lighting tank.

I interpret the lack of photoinhibiton of clams as existing because they just don't need it, not because they like 1000+ PAR of light. While coral can't do much to reduce the light they get, clams can just close. From a survival standpoint to would be advantageous to clams to be able to utilize all of the sunlight it can (lack of saturation) and then just close more when it has had enough to reduce their mantle exposure to predators.

From advanced aquarist:

The total light dosage on a natural reef can be determined at depths up to 40 feet with the information presented here. The standard I will use in future articles will be that present on a natural reef at a depth of 10 feet during a clear, summer (July) day in Hawaii (City of Refuge, or Honaunau, Big Island of Hawaii). The water column would have low suspended solids (turbidity) and water color.
The total light dosage, or DLI, under these conditions would be:
  • Summer DLI (sunny) @10 feet = 33.7, or an average of 780 µmol photons·m²·sec in a 12-hour photoperiod
  • Summer DLI (cloudy)@10 feet = 22.9, or an average of 511 µmol photons·m²·sec in a 12-hour photoperiod
Remember that those numbers are PAR values of sunlight. The majority of the light at 10ft is in the green spectrum which is very poor for photosynthesis. So during the summer months 10ft on that reef gets an average of 780PAR for 12hr, but a huge amount of that is not in the PUR (Photosynthetically Useable Radiation for those who are not familiar - matches chlorophyll peaks) range which clams or coral can use, but is reflected in the PAR. If you run a LED system (like me) pretty much all of the blue light is in PUR region.

So run an LED system at 1000PAR on a clam, and they are really getting blasted by a TON of light in the PUR region. Clams can only grow so fast, they need to grow organs along with shell, so when they have had enough they close up to prevent damage that coral prevent with photoinhibiton. Or at least that is my suspicion. I am not presenting any of this as fact, just my observations with AA's light data and well known PAR/PUR information.

Here is that article, I think it's a paid one, I work in research so we have most journals paid, but when I looked at home it looks like a stupid pay to read.

The effect of shade on water quality parameters and survival and growth of juvenile fluted giant clams, Tridacna squamosa, cultured in a land-based growth trial - Springer


 
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Sangheili

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To the OP, I think that light will be great for the clams! The rest of this could be confusing, but I like talking about my favorite reef animal!

Sangheili, the red spectrum and or regulation of the zoox is very possible, but I notice the same thing with all the clams I have had in really high light systems, but just not as obvious as when I really went all out. I remember reading Zeph from nano reef with his clams and MH lighting had the clams also gradually close up throughout the day when he added a ton of MH lighting too. Even now in my system the clams start the day with very wide extension and gradually close - I just have the light not that intense (300PAR) so it's just a little closed by the end of the day, but they still do it. That is a maxima, squamosa and derasa, when I had a crocea it didn't seem to close up, just a small amount when it was in the ultra high lighting tank.

I interpret the lack of photoinhibiton of clams as existing because they just don't need it, not because they like 1000+ PAR of light. While coral can't do much to reduce the light they get, clams can just close. From a survival standpoint to would be advantageous to clams to be able to utilize all of the sunlight it can (lack of saturation) and then just close more when it has had enough to reduce their mantle exposure to predators.

From advanced aquarist:

The total light dosage on a natural reef can be determined at depths up to 40 feet with the information presented here. The standard I will use in future articles will be that present on a natural reef at a depth of 10 feet during a clear, summer (July) day in Hawaii (City of Refuge, or Honaunau, Big Island of Hawaii). The water column would have low suspended solids (turbidity) and water color.
The total light dosage, or DLI, under these conditions would be:
  • Summer DLI (sunny) @10 feet = 33.7, or an average of 780 µmol photons·m²·sec in a 12-hour photoperiod
  • Summer DLI (cloudy)@10 feet = 22.9, or an average of 511 µmol photons·m²·sec in a 12-hour photoperiod
Remember that those numbers are PAR values of sunlight. The majority of the light at 10ft is in the green spectrum which is very poor for photosynthesis. So during the summer months 10ft on that reef gets an average of 780PAR for 12hr, but a huge amount of that is not in the PUR (Photosynthetically Useable Radiation for those who are not familiar - matches chlorophyll peaks) range which clams or coral can use, but is reflected in the PAR. If you run a LED system (like me) pretty much all of the blue light is in PUR region.

So run an LED system at 1000PAR on a clam, and they are really getting blasted by a TON of light in the PUR region. Clams can only grow so fast, they need to grow organs along with shell, so when they have had enough they close up to prevent damage that coral prevent with photoinhibiton. Or at least that is my suspicion. I am not presenting any of this as fact, just my observations with AA's light data and well known PAR/PUR information.

Here is that article, I think it's a paid one, I work in research so we have most journals paid, but when I looked at home it looks like a stupid pay to read.

The effect of shade on water quality parameters and survival and growth of juvenile fluted giant clams, Tridacna squamosa, cultured in a land-based growth trial - Springer



Great contribution to the discussion. I would love to see more scientific studies done with an emphasis on the spectrum of light provided and how the clams react. I think you're spot on regarding the closing up thing.
 

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