Moving Maxima Clam to higher PAR

[John Helm]

Hi Everyone. Recently I purchased a blue maxima clam from TSM Corals at their facility in New Jersey. The shell length is 40mm (1.6”) and it’s attached to a piece of flat rock on the bottom of my 90 gallon sps tank. It’s been in the tank for about 3 weeks and is doing well, however it seems to need more light. The tank is bare bottomed and has been running for 10 years. For lighting I have 2 Radion LED 2nd generation fixtures and 4 ATI T5 bulbs retrofitted to the canopy. Water parameters are excellent and I have acros and montis growing at all levels of the tank. I measured the PAR where the clam currently is, and during the peak intensity of the day, the PAR is 140 with the LED’s only and 210 with the additional T5’s. The place where I’d like to place the clam is at the upper section of the rock work under only one of the Radions, and the values in that spot are 260 (LED’s only) and 425 with the T5’s added. The T5’s are on for only 3 hours during the peak of the daily lighting cycle. I don’t really have any spots to gradually move the clam up the rockwork over time. Do you think it would be detrimental to just move him directly to the top, going from a peak of 210 to a peak of 425? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DSC reef]

It's a good idea to move the clam to more light. Light shock can definitely happen in smaller clams. Can you turn down the intensity and gradually work up the light intensity over a couple weeks? IMO clams don't need to be fed. It's hard to over light a maxima as long as it's done gradually as the clam is small. I'd look up some articles by James Fatheree, really good proven information. @jda what's your take on par for maximas as we've always kept them high in the tank.

 

[DeniseAndy]

That is a baby maxima and you have a nice full running system for it. That is great! I would not worry about it being on the bottom. The main concern is it getting moved, bumped or hassled. Those guys can be really finicky. 140PAR is plenty actually if it is getting good spectrum. I have always had mine on the bottom of my 24" deep tanks and never an issue (MH and T5s). Measured PAR in past and usually around 100. My croceas did great too.

Biggest thing is it need food. I would stir up your rocks and sandbed to make it nice and murky so it gets fed regularly. You can add some reef roids to the system too.

Good luck!

 

[John Helm]

That is a baby maxima and you have a nice full running system for it. That is great! I would not worry about it being on the bottom. The main concern is it getting moved, bumped or hassled. Those guys can be really finicky. 140PAR is plenty actually if it is getting good spectrum. I have always had mine on the bottom of my 24" deep tanks and never an issue (MH and T5s). Measured PAR in past and usually around 100. My croceas did great too.

Biggest thing is it need food. I would stir up your rocks and sandbed to make it nice and murky so it gets fed regularly. You can add some reef roids to the system too.

Good luck!

Thanks. The tank is bare bottom but I feed with Reef Roids twice or three times per week.