clams as biofilter

stylaster · Oct 2, 2012

I have been doing this for years. Get a medium sized derasa (8-10") per 50g or so will do a great job in nitrate and phosphate reduction, of course depending on your bioload. I personally have a 10" deresa, a 4" maxima and 5" crocea in my 120 with 3 fish and have no detectable nitrates or phosphates. Something to think about for those of you fighting nitrate / phosphate issues. Also here is an interesting article about it

Clam Biofilter

Pkunk35 · Oct 2, 2012

stylaster said:
I have been doing this for years. Get a medium sized derasa (8-10") per 50g or so will do a great job in nitrate and phosphate reduction, of course depending on your bioload. I personally have a 10" deresa, a 4" maxima and 5" crocea in my 120 with 3 fish and have no detectable nitrates or phosphates. Something to think about for those of you fighting nitrate / phosphate issues. Also here is an interesting article about it

Clam Biofilter

So is this article basically saying that having a giant clam in the aquarium is akin to having liverock which will fix ammonia and nitrate in the aquarium? The fact that they changed the water only once in 7 months was impressive.

Will then an aquarium with no fish have troubles keeping clams if it is a low nutrient system or can clams utilize light as the only food source if necessary?

bige · Oct 2, 2012

Pkunk35 said:
So is this article basically saying that having a giant clam in the aquarium is akin to having liverock which will fix ammonia and nitrate in the aquarium? The fact that they changed the water only once in 7 months was impressive.

Will then an aquarium with no fish have troubles keeping clams if it is a low nutrient system or can clams utilize light as the only food source if necessary?

I have wondered the same questions.

KoleTang · Oct 2, 2012

I suppose you could just feed it if the nutrients get too low.

Is this kinda the same idea as using cryptic things like sponges for filtration?

ingtar_shinowa · Oct 2, 2012

I just lost my clams due to some unknown predation, but I have red slime again. I think clams are great for filtration.

ritter6788 · Oct 2, 2012

All tanks should have at least one clam anyway if you ask me. :)

A hand in nutrient reduction makes it a bonus for sure.

ZoaFan08 · Oct 2, 2012

Garrett has over a dozen clams in his refug for his outdoor SPS system.

stylaster · Oct 2, 2012

Pkunk35 said:
So is this article basically saying that having a giant clam in the aquarium is akin to having liverock which will fix ammonia and nitrate in the aquarium? The fact that they changed the water only once in 7 months was impressive.

Will then an aquarium with no fish have troubles keeping clams if it is a low nutrient system or can clams utilize light as the only food source if necessary?

You need some sort of phosphate / nitrate to be introduced. Clam farms in the south pacific use chemical means to boost it in the grow out raceways

mainereefer · Oct 2, 2012

I have been doing alot of reading on this subject for a few weeks now, since I went on ebay and they had little neck clams (steamers) selling for $5 each as cleaner clams LOL
you can buy them at the supermarket for about 10-20 cents each if that. you just buy a few throw them in a bowl of tank water and when they open put them in 5"-6" of fine sand

stylaster · Oct 2, 2012

not sure how other clam species do as biofilters, i know that 'cleaner clams' oysters, scallops, etc are filter feeders and you need to add phytoplanton or zooplankton to your water to keep them healthy, which could actually degrade your water quality if you over do it. The tridacna species doesnt need that and that is the species you should use to help reduce nitrate / phosphate

Young Frankenstein · Oct 2, 2012

Great information, thanks

skinz78 · Oct 11, 2012

stylaster said:
I have been doing this for years. Get a medium sized derasa (8-10") per 50g or so will do a great job in nitrate and phosphate reduction, of course depending on your bioload. I personally have a 10" deresa, a 4" maxima and 5" crocea in my 120 with 3 fish and have no detectable nitrates or phosphates. Something to think about for those of you fighting nitrate / phosphate issues. Also here is an interesting article about it

Clam Biofilter

I've always been a firm believer that yes indeed clams can reduce N&P but always thought you would need a lot of them to make any difference. Recently I've had a few issues with a couple of my nano tanks. One had real bad HA and I placed a 6" Squamosa in there before adding it to my DT to kind of QT the clam. After 2 weeks time the HA was GONE! The other tank is my daughers 20g nano and it has a RBTA in there. One day the RBTA went on walkabout and got tangled up in the Koralia powerhead bad! I pretty much instantly had a Cyano factory and thick green slime floating on the surface. I got the green slime off the surface but couldn't rid the Cyano. Well a nicely colored 4.5" teardrop Maxima came up for sale and I couldn't resist. Once here I was a bit unprepared with my standard QT so I just put it in the 20g, there were no other clams in there so no worries. Within one weeks time all and I mean all the algae and cyano was gone!

Pkunk35 said:
The fact that they changed the water only once in 7 months was impressive.

Will then an aquarium with no fish have troubles keeping clams if it is a low nutrient system or can clams utilize light as the only food source if necessary?

Haha I'm the worst for doing water changes, it's a good thing I have lots of clams lol.

Right now my wife's 28g nano is fishless but I do have a 3" Crocea in there. It is lit by a 150w MH so yeah it is getting everything it needs from the light. There are corals in there and I'm pretty sure they let off some ammonia...

KoleTang said:
I suppose you could just feed it if the nutrients get too low.

Is this kinda the same idea as using cryptic things like sponges for filtration?

Clams don't need food as long as you have a source for ammonia and phosphates, if you have fish you have a source.

ritter6788 said:
All tanks should have at least one clam anyway if you ask me. :)

AMEN!!!!

mainereefer said:
I have been doing alot of reading on this subject for a few weeks now, since I went on ebay and they had little neck clams (steamers) selling for $5 each as cleaner clams LOL
you can buy them at the supermarket for about 10-20 cents each if that. you just buy a few throw them in a bowl of tank water and when they open put them in 5"-6" of fine sand

The steamer clams die really quickly in our aquariums. I don't recommend even wasting your time on them.