Clam only pico tank

Aiptaisia anemone

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I’m thinking of one giant clam in the middle of the tank and no rocks, all biological filtration will be on the sump, the tank will be 3.7 pico. The clam will also be surrounded with corals sticking on its shell, and xenias on the side of the tank, im wondering if this can be done, I’m worried for sticking corals on the shell of the clam.
 

MaxTremors

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Attaching corals to the shell of the clam is just going to irritate the clam and likely cause it’s mantle to recede. I also don’t know how you would keep the alkalinity and calcium stable for a large clam in a 3.7 gallon tank.
 
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Aiptaisia anemone

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This is a joke, right?
No it’s not, I just thought one clam in the middle surrounded by soft corals would look cool. I keep pico reefs successfully and just got bored with it and thinking of something new.
 

Chrisv.

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No it’s not, I just thought one clam in the middle surrounded by soft corals would look cool. I keep pico reefs successfully and just got bored with it and thinking of something new.
Clams are really cool but they have extremely high calcium and alk demands. like...more than even the most thirsty SPS. Maybe with a trident and associated dosing system this would be doable. I love small tanks but they are not well suited to keeping clams.

It would certainly look cool, but It would be incredibly hard to provide a stable environment for them in there.
 

Chrisv.

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One idea: If you DO have a larger tank you could eventually put it in, you might actually do okay with a very small clam in a small tank, provided that you used it as an opportunity to really go to town on feeding it with phyto. One issue that people run into in large tanks is that these tiny 1 inch aquacultured clams really frequently fail to thrive. They benefit a ton from supplemental phyto feedings, but its next to impossible to get the phyto concentration up in a big tank. ...assuming you have the right lights and can manage alk/cal.
 

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Whoa
ZomboMeme 18102021184239.jpg
 
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Aiptaisia anemone

Aiptaisia anemone

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Clams are really cool but they have extremely high calcium and alk demands. like...more than even the most thirsty SPS. Maybe with a trident and associated dosing system this would be doable. I love small tanks but they are not well suited to keeping clams.

It would certainly look cool, but It would be incredibly hard to provide a stable environment for them in there.
Ok thanks, that saves me some money.
 

mdb_talon

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I actually like your idea, but as other have mentioned it would be very tough to do given the demands of a clam. If you had it plumbed into a larger system then it is probably doable(minus the gluing corals to its shell)
 

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I had a anemone park it’s self on the side of one of my clams for months, never seemed to bother it. I sold the clam with the nem attached. You maybe able to pull it off by dosing Kalk into the ATO container.
maybe go with A Derasa?
 

sixty_reefer

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I’m thinking of one giant clam in the middle of the tank and no rocks, all biological filtration will be on the sump, the tank will be 3.7 pico. The clam will also be surrounded with corals sticking on its shell, and xenias on the side of the tank, im wondering if this can be done, I’m worried for sticking corals on the shell of the clam.
Shouldn’t be an issue as long as you got a doser in this tank, maybe look at macro algae’s instead of corals, dragons breath would create a nice contrast with the clam. I would also look at dosing ammonia instead of having a fish in this tank. Maybe some cool critters.
 
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Aiptaisia anemone

Aiptaisia anemone

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Shouldn’t be an issue as long as you got a doser in this tank, maybe look at macro algae’s instead of corals, dragons breath would create a nice contrast with the clam. I would also look at dosing ammonia instead of having a fish in this tank. Maybe some cool critters.
Do they really take that much? Even if it just one clam?
 

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