Is my tank ready for clams?

[pseudorand]

Clams have been high on my list since I set up my tank a year ago. But they're expensive and supposedly hard to care for. How do I know if my tank is ready?

Nitrogen cycle is long done and nitrate is 3-5ppm for a long time now.

I have a 2part regime down and my alk, calk and mg are mostly steady within the recommended ranges.

Phosphate is a bit high at 0.1, but slowly and steadily falling due to Phosguard and cheato in my sump.

I have 4x Lumia 5.2 DIY lights (100 cree LEDs total) that are on at 35% max, so I have room to adjust lighting up if I need to.

I also have a muscle that came on my live rock and has been alive and well for almost a full year?

I have a few softies and LPS doing well, but my bird's nest didn't make it and I'm not sure how well my montipora shelf is doing. I dropped a crab pellet on it and didn't notice for a few days. It seems to have died near there, but the problem isn't spreading.

Anything else I should check/know before getting a clam?

 

[gentlefish]

I would usually recommend that SPS are doing well in the tank, as clams require quite some calcium, pH certainly better than 7.7 .That said ... if another clam is doing well with stable parameters...You would want a bigger size clam, as the small ones need extra food. At 2 inches, photosynthesis covers most of their need.

 

[pseudorand]

Muscles aren't photosynthetic, are they? My muscle is doing great, but I'm not sure what I should draw from that vis-a-vis clam keeping. I suppose nothing too toxic, sufficient food for a filter feeder and maybe sufficient calcium, but nothing about lighting.

pH is steady as a rock at 8.0 and alk is 8-9 with dosing, but it does fluctuate within that range. Calcium fluctuates between 370 and 470. Tank needs seem to be constantly changing, so I haven't been able to get those params any more stable than that.

My bird's nest dieing is an unexplained mystery. It went 45 days in QT without issue. I slowly upped my lights when it went into DT and it did fine for about 3 weeks. Then it just bleached over about 2 weeks from the bottom up. Seems like a common problem with bird's nest, as there are many similar posts about it, but none with any concrete explanation as to why.

 

[gentlefish]

oh sorry, I would usually not recommend clams, if SPS don’t grow. It means something is off: stability, calcium, alkalinity or pH. You however have documented stability. So where is the problem with your Birdnest? Is it water or the Birdnest? As a little bivalve is doing well, I sway to think it was the Birdnest and the water is good. (And correct, you little hitchhiker is a pure filter feeder)