I need advice

[SourAngelfish]

Okay, I was browsing the petco while picking up some fish food yesterday, I rarely by livestock from petco and was looking around in the tanks, they had a tank with two clams, one labeled deresa clam and one labeled Maxima clam, they looked decent (opened up and such) but they definitely lacked color (tan with very light blue on the rims). They had some random sale thingy and the clam was only $10 so I decided I might as well pick it up and try to help it. I’ve gotten it home and it’s opened up and appears to be doing well, I’ve read that smaller clams under i think 3” have problems staying alive, is that in length or width? He’s definitely about 4-5” long and about 2-3” across. After looking at some pictures it looks a lot more like the deresa clam (I’ll post pictures soon). I plan on testing calcium and such and hopefully get that in check. My only concern is lighting, I have the stock biocube lighting, I’m pretty sure it sucks. Let me know if it’s okay. Also any other advice would be helpful, thanks!

 

[SourAngelfish]

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You are probably going to want more Light or move them up and mount them in a cradle.

Just Light starved.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

What bio cube is it?

This one?

 

[SourAngelfish]

Nope it’s a biocube 14, I suspect they use the same lights

 

[SourAngelfish]

I’m having a bit trouble Identifying, it has a pretty small byssal opening in the bottom. I would like to figure out what it is, then I could get better lighting ideas.

 

[SourAngelfish]

I plan on supplementing and keeping it in the top of the tank and see if it begins to regain color

 

[DSC reef]

I’m having a bit trouble Identifying, it has a pretty small byssal opening in the bottom. I would like to figure out what it is, then I could get better lighting ideas.

Tridacna derasa

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You want 80-100 par for those.
Yea kinda bad news there.

 

[SourAngelfish]

Could I possibly balance out the lack of light with feeding more phytoplankton?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Could I possibly balance out the lack of light with feeding more phytoplankton?

No. Afraid not.
Look for a clam hammock or you can diy one with some live rock and a chisel.
http://www.aquacave.com/brightwell-...MI7ceIjfLR2gIVghhpCh1WpQOIEAQYASABEgI2GfD_BwE
See if you can mount it high.

You can also run your lights longer at full as well. Like 12+ hrs if you’re not already.

 

[needbiggertanks]

Agree. Deresa
Agree. More light
Agree. He doesnt look in horrible shape
Agree. Feeding phyto wont fix lack of light

Good luck, they're my favorite

 

[Tahoe61]

If it's stock PowerCompacts you should be ok if the bulbs are not incredibly old. You should easily be able to tell the difference between the PC and the supplemental LEDs.

The clam is going to be a lot closer to the light in biocube than it would be in the tanks at Petco.

 

[Joel B.]

Definitely a Derasa, and definitely could use more light, but it has the lowest requirements for a clam. It's also going to chew through ALK/CAL like crazy.

The other concern is that at full size it's going to be about as big as your biocube. See the post about the member that just bought an 11.5" Derasa. They get big, and it doesn't take them particularly long to do so.

 

[SourAngelfish]

Definitely a Derasa, and definitely could use more light, but it has the lowest requirements for a clam. It's also going to chew through ALK/CAL like crazy.

The other concern is that at full size it's going to be about as big as your biocube. See the post about the member that just bought an 11.5" Derasa. They get big, and it doesn't take them particularly long to do so.

I plan on moving it into a larger tank at some point. I’ll either upgrade or find someone with a larger tank.

 

[DSC reef]

The derasa clam gets really big but it will be quite a while before you have to worry about it out growing your bio cube. Not my photo.

 

[needbiggertanks]

The derasa clam gets really big but it will be quite a while before you have to worry about it out growing your bio cube. Not my photo.

This is my goal

 

[SourAngelfish]

Okay, I think I’ve got this, does anyone mind explaining how calcium works, it seems like it’s going to be a struggle to control it in such a small tank

 

[SourAngelfish]

Also, the clam opened up a lot more today and is a lot darker in color, he’s more of an orangish purple now

 

[DSC reef]

Okay, I think I’ve got this, does anyone mind explaining how calcium works, it seems like it’s going to be a struggle to control it in such a small tank

Test regularly and dose a 2 part as needed.