lighting advice plz

[drbeeker]

Hello, I have a new 7g saltwater tank that is about 1 month old. I am going to use it for a reef tank and eventually put a clam and maybe one fish in there.

The specs are:
1inch of carribean sand, a few live rocks, and five soft corals. PH, Alkalinity, salinity, and calcium are within normal ranges...calcium is actually slightly high.

The current lighting setup is (2) CORALIFE 4-pin 24watt bulbs. Each 4-pin bulb has 2 side-by-side bulbs for a total of 3 blue, 1 white.

Is this enough light to keep my reef healthy?
Will it be enough to keep a healthy clam?
Do I need to worry about the lighting if I add more coral?

thanks in advance,
Andy

[MileHighFish]

welcome to r/c! I think the light will do well for softies but would be lacking for a clam.

[crvz]

I concur, I think it may be a bit of a stretch for a clam. Not to mention the only clam that would really fit in a 7 gallon would be a crocea, which is rather high-light demanding. The lights would be alright for most softies, and maybe even some LPS corals.

[drbeeker]

great, thanks!

What would I need to do to the lighting in order to support a clam? add another white bulb? crank up the wattage?

I like the look of the crocea

[MileHighFish]

i would think a DE 150 watt mh would do wonders, you could keep anything you wanted.

[returnofsid]

Honestly, I think your idea of keeping a clam in a 7 gallon tank is a bit of a stretch. You'll have a very hard time meeting it's light demands, without heating up the water to unlivable levels. You'll also have a very hard time maintaining high enough levels of Ca, Alk and Mg for a clam. Not to mention that just about any clam, even a T. crocea can eventually grow larger than the entire 7 gallon tank.

[crvz]

You would need a different kind of lighting all together. I wouldnt recommend a PC fixture for a crocea clam long term. Either a 150W MH (probably the easiest solution) or some sort of T5 setup with individual refelctors.