New to clams...

[blawson02]

I am thinking about putting some clams into my reef and was wondering what they needed, as far a suplements to thrive. The water quaility I take it needs to be good and I'm reading about calcium as well?

[Peabody]

The most important thingis lighting. If you have metal halide lighting you can keep any clam. If you have VHOs/T5s, etc you can keep squamosas, derasas, etc. What kind of tank do you have and what's the lighting?

If the lighting is sufficient then yes, the water quality needs to be very good and stable. Calcium and Alkilinity have to be kept at acceptably high levels too because clams suck it right out of the water quickly!

[blawson02]

I have a 40g with a 175w MH right now. I've been checking the water and it seems to be stable. I just got my calcium to where it stays around 420-450 but I cant seem to get my alk up at all. I've been putting some dkh superbuffer in daily to slowly raise it up, but it seems be be going the other way on the scale. I think it was 8meg and 15alk last night. I've also had some algae blooms and my nitrates are up alittle.

[Peabody]

Sounds like you're off to a great start, and congrats on reasearching before you buy. How high are your nitrates?

About alk, most people shoot for 9-12 dkh (I think 4 mg/l) Your readings actualyl sound high to me, but I'm not familiar with that scale.

[blawson02]

Well, my nitrates have been floating around 60-80 for the last week and a half. I've done two water changes since (have not tested tonite, and did a change yesterday) so I'm hoping to see some improvments. As far as the dkh goes, i've averaging about 6.8 and the kh is 19. From what my reading has suggested, I should be around 2.9 and 8. Would adding more dkh buffer help these numbers lower, or would letting a few days pass lower the levels? The test I'm using seems like I should add more to get the lower reading.

[Peabody]

Whoa....19kh is way high....most people want 9-12. What brand test kit are you using.

You are right, that is very high nitrates. Are using a wet dry, bio wheel, canister filter, bio-balls, or any other biological media than live rock? ALso, are you running a skimmer?

[blawson02]

I am using a Salifert dkh/kh test. As far as the filtration, I am using bio media in 1/2 of my canister and charcoal in the other half. I do have a skimmer running, but only 1/2 of the day to make sure that my bioplankton does not get taken out in the morning after I add. .. I just relized that doing that might be the problem of why I have such a large spike. I just recently started to turn the skimmer off to feed the corals.

[Peabody]

Actually, the bio-media you are using is the problem. Canisters are often referred to as "Nitrate factories". You should let your live rock and the skimmer do all the filtration. Slowly remove the biomedia from the canister.

[blawson02]

Will that be enough filtration? And what can I replace the bio media with in the filter? Any suggestions on good additives?

[Peabody]

You don't want anything in there. The most peope run in a reef is occasional carbon. Live rock (maybe some sand) and your skimmer should be your filter.

How many lbs of live rock do you have? Any sand?

[blawson02]

Really? I not used to the whole reef filtration thing. I have about 25#'s of rock, might be more now, I stopped keeping track after a while. I just took the crushed coral out as well as the undergravel and replaced it with reef sand (the kind in a bag of water with the bacteria in it already) about a month 1/2 ago.