GFO and pinched mantle

Kigs! · May 23, 2008

Anybody running phosphate reactors and succesfully keeping clams at the same time without pinched mantles?

Russellaqua · May 23, 2008

How big are your clams? As a general rule any clam that is less than 3" can suffer from pinched mantle, even without running a reactor.

Kigs! · May 23, 2008

It's well above 3''. I was reading this article, which got me worried.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.php

Russellaqua · May 28, 2008

I would think that a slow introduction to using the reactor would be best. Maybe start with only a small amount of material in it and work up from there so as to avoid a sudden drop in organics and other materials in the water. The best solution though is to use RO/DI that doesn't contain any phosphate. The amount added to the tank via feeding should be low and easily removed through regular water changes.

iani · Jun 2, 2008

I run gfo. Mantles are not pinched I have about 8 clams.

GMaquarium · Jul 30, 2008

I have a phos reactor in a tank with 7 clams. Its a very nutrient low tank, but I feed live phyto. That tanks gets 1L of phytoplankton at least 3 times a week

AlexStinson · Jul 30, 2008

GMaquarium said:
....That tanks gets 1L of phytoplankton at least 3 times a week

That's not a cheap snack!!! 3L a week!

GMaquarium · Jul 30, 2008

I like to use lots of phyto.

robharold · Jul 30, 2008

I have one clam in my tank. I run Phosphate reactor and have not seen any pinched mantle. I will watch closer over the next few days to see.

I am very soon going to change out the GFO media. I guess it may be a good idea to remove the old and only add back a little of the new at a time so as not to totally strip out the phosphate.

Candycane · Aug 30, 2008

I don't think it's specifically know what pinched mantle is caused by.

I am BY NO MEANS RECOMMENDING THIS but I have had luck curing clams (not mine) with Paraguard. Thing is, that I wouldn't recommend it to others because I have not seen the long term effects on a Tridacna Clam.

Most of the time I have seen pinched mantle, it seems to be induced by stress or other tank factors. Temperature seems to play a rather large role.