How often to feed crocea clam?

[Bryce_Thomas]

I have a 1" crocea clam I got and he is happy and healthy, I am feeding phyto, how often should I feed? I have a nano tank and the instructions say to feed 1 drop per gallon per day, but I know many experienced reefers have their own tips and tricks. Any advice?

 

[Aquariumaddictuk]

People have mixed experiences nutrient wise with live phyto.
For me it lowers them
I feed 1ml per gallon a day for 6 clams in an SPS dominant tank.
I'd start with half that & monitor parameters closely until you get a feel for it

 

[ReneReef]

I feed mine daily.
I feed it light, a peak PAR of over 300 umol/m2 for 6 hours.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The light is so much more important than how many drops of phyto to dose.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I have a 1" crocea clam I got and he is happy and healthy, I am feeding phyto, how often should I feed? I have a nano tank and the instructions say to feed 1 drop per gallon per day, but I know many experienced reefers have their own tips and tricks. Any advice?

I have never specifically fed a clam.

They get what they need from fish wastes and light.

 

[twentyleagues]

It is not needed to "feed" clams other than the proper light spectrum, intensity, and duration. They will filter feed from the water column to get n and p. I dont think phyto will hurt just probably not needed if you have fish and are feeding them.

 

[Bryce_Thomas]

It is not needed to "feed" clams other than the proper light spectrum, intensity, and duration. They will filter feed from the water column to get n and p. I dont think phyto will hurt just probably not needed if you have fish and are feeding them.

I have an AI blade coral grow light for my 10 gallon nano tank. I have the light about 6 inches above the water. It said on the instructions that it can accommodate up top a 40g tank, so I ran the blue and royal blue on 25% power and white on 1% power and everything loves it, to get a stronger PAR for my clam, should i raise the blue and royal to a higher %? I have 1 young clown that I feed a little bit every few days

 

[exnisstech]

I doubt you can give a clam too much light with a blade. I'm not really sure they can get too much par from any of the lights we use.

 

[twentyleagues]

I have an AI blade coral grow light for my 10 gallon nano tank. I have the light about 6 inches above the water. It said on the instructions that it can accommodate up top a 40g tank, so I ran the blue and royal blue on 25% power and white on 1% power and everything loves it, to get a stronger PAR for my clam, should i raise the blue and royal to a higher %? I have 1 young clown that I feed a little bit every few days

Do you have other corals in the tank? What size blade is it? I have a 21" that I had over my return to reefing tank. I want to say I had it at about 75% total intensity and had about 220par at about 10" under the water with in an 8" area directly under the light, going more than the 4" front to back the light started to drop off pretty quick. All in all a pretty power full light. Clams can handle everything that light can give and more. But ideally, they should get minimum 250+ and that may be too low for long term health. Problem with that size tank is will giving your clam the light it needs cook other corals in the tank.

 

[Bryce_Thomas]

Do you have other corals in the tank? What size blade is it? I have a 21" that I had over my return to reefing tank. I want to say I had it at about 75% total intensity and had about 220par at about 10" under the water with in an 8" area directly under the light, going more than the 4" front to back the light started to drop off pretty quick. All in all a pretty power full light. Clams can handle everything that light can give and more. But ideally, they should get minimum 250+ and that may be too low for long term health. Problem with that size tank is will giving your clam the light it needs cook other corals in the tank.

I have 2 plates, acan lord, duncan, goniopora, green slimer acropora, birdsnest, toadstool leather, chalice, candy cane, yellow star polyp, zoas, rock flower nem, mini green carpet nem. Basically a mixed reef tank
I have a 12 inch blade coral grow, its enough to entirely encapsulate the reef tank from left side to right side

 

[ReneReef]

I have 2 plates, acan lord, duncan, goniopora, green slimer acropora, birdsnest, toadstool leather, chalice, candy cane, yellow star polyp, zoas, rock flower nem, mini green carpet nem. Basically a mixed reef tank
I have a 12 inch blade coral grow, its enough to entirely encapsulate the reef tank from left side to right side

So, a 20Watt light above a 10 gallon tank.
I’d say, put all channels on 100% for six hours during the day. If you want to give that clam any chance.

25% blue and 1% white on that light is like candle light for corals.

Clams live in shallow water.
Crocea the absolute shallowest. They easily get PAR values over 1000. In shallow, the light is also not blue.

Your bali slimer is also gonna be much happier whit more appropriate lighting.
Your acans may need to be moved in a shaded spot. Acans also live very shallow, but also in very murky waters.

So, keeping acans and a crocea in a nano tank, its going to be very challanging to meet both their needs.

That the manufacturers instructions say a light can light out a certain tank size, does not mean that it will provide enough light for whatever coral of clam you keep under it.
A 40 gallon tank, I would use at least 40W worth of LED-lighting. LEDs are LEDs, AI does not have special ones that produce 4 times the light for the same power consumption as their competitors.

 

[twentyleagues]

I have 2 plates, acan lord, duncan, goniopora, green slimer acropora, birdsnest, toadstool leather, chalice, candy cane, yellow star polyp, zoas, rock flower nem, mini green carpet nem. Basically a mixed reef tank
I have a 12 inch blade coral grow, its enough to entirely encapsulate the reef tank from left side to right side

Like @ReneReef said you may have to do some rearranging. Also the light probably needs to be maxed to have any chance keeping the clam happy which is probably going to tick off some of your corals. Make sure the clam is as close to the light as possible right under it. What I was saying above is the blades have about a 4" spread to either side of it where the par is most intense so give or take 8" front to back if the light sits in the left to right configuration. After that 8ish" band par starts to drop off so the lower light corals could go outside of that band and be happy. I have no doubt the blades can and will provide enough par to grow a lot of corals especially in the correct number of units or sized to the tank correctly, I just dont know if one single one can provide for a crocea.

 

[Dburr1014]

Clams have all they need to live if you can give them the required par and spectrum.

 

[Bryce_Thomas]

Like @ReneReef said you may have to do some rearranging. Also the light probably needs to be maxed to have any chance keeping the clam happy which is probably going to tick off some of your corals. Make sure the clam is as close to the light as possible right under it. What I was saying above is the blades have about a 4" spread to either side of it where the par is most intense so give or take 8" front to back if the light sits in the left to right configuration. After that 8ish" band par starts to drop off so the lower light corals could go outside of that band and be happy. I have no doubt the blades can and will provide enough par to grow a lot of corals especially in the correct number of units or sized to the tank correctly, I just dont know if one single one can provide for a crocea.

Will do. The clam sits on the highest rock only 3 inches from the water surface, with 6 inches above the water surface for the light. I cant do the full intensity but I can definitely crank it up there for the clam

 

[twentyleagues]

Will do. The clam sits on the highest rock only 3 inches from the water surface, with 6 inches above the water surface for the light. I cant do the full intensity but I can definitely crank it up there for the clam

You dont want to shock the other corals so go slow maybe 5-10% every 2 days. I never could get the acclimation mode to work on my blade but that would probably be ideal. Why cant you go to full intensity?

 

[ReneReef]

...I cant do the full intensity but I can definitely crank it up there for the clam

Phyto is optional, lighting is not.
To me, this sentence means that you are accepting that the clam will most likely wither away and die in your care.

I think know that you could easily go full intensity with that light on that tank.

 

[minus9]

As others have stated, feed the whole tank phyto, not the clam. Whether a clam consumes phyto is completely up to that individual clam. Clams need a lot of quality full spectrum light and stable water parameters and light is priority one no matter what. I would work my way up to all channels at 100% for at least 8hrs a day, this may take a while in order not to shock the other inhabitants, but if you want to keep the clam thriving, it's a must. Look at the shell of the clam, on the upper margins just under the mantle, is there new white shell growth? At this size, you should see clear white growth of at least 3-5mm. This white growth should always be present, it may alter how much over time, but if you don't see that growth, your clam isn't growing and that's not good.
I would pick up James Fatherree's book on clams here.

 

[Bryce_Thomas]

As others have stated, feed the whole tank phyto, not the clam. Whether a clam consumes phyto is completely up to that individual clam. Clams need a lot of quality full spectrum light and stable water parameters and light is priority one no matter what. I would work my way up to all channels at 100% for at least 8hrs a day, this may take a while in order not to shock the other inhabitants, but if you want to keep the clam thriving, it's a must. Look at the shell of the clam, on the upper margins just under the mantle, is there new white shell growth? At this size, you should see clear white growth of at least 3-5mm. This white growth should always be present, it may alter how much over time, but if you don't see that growth, your clam isn't growing and that's not good.
I would pick up James Fatherree's book on clams here.

Thanks for the info. Will be doing this.

 

[Bryce_Thomas]

You dont want to shock the other corals so go slow maybe 5-10% every 2 days. I never could get the acclimation mode to work on my blade but that would probably be ideal. Why cant you go to full intensity?

The intensity issue is that I don't want to bleach my other corals. My tank is a 10- gal. Thats nano. The blade coral grow light I have is built for a 40 gallon. 25% on all spectrums is plenty for a 10 gallon, but 100% is overdosing by 4 times. The conflict is that the other corals I have love the 25% but will die/need some time to acclimate in a 100% while clams love very intense light

 

[minus9]

The intensity issue is that I don't want to bleach my other corals. My tank is a 10- gal. Thats nano. The blade coral grow light I have is built for a 40 gallon. 25% on all spectrums is plenty for a 10 gallon, but 100% is overdosing by 4 times. The conflict is that the other corals I have love the 25% but will die/need some time to acclimate in a 100% while clams love very intense light

Then I would strongly consider whether keeping a clam in that system is the right choice or not? Crocea are the most light demanding clam, so it may not be the right fit. You can try to increase the lighting over the course of a couple weeks, but you need to make sure the clam is growing and always has that nice white growth margin on the upper part of the shell.
I hope it works out, but maybe finding a new home for it as a plan B would be the responsive thing to do? Keep us posted and take a pic of the clam under white light so we can see the shell.