Firstly OP, educate yourself before asking 1) incredibly basic questions and 2) disagreeing with the answer
Secondly, to say “my squamous survives under X” is similar to saying “this sparrow survives, why won’t this crow?” They’re both birds, they can both survive in the same habitat, but they certainly don’t survive in the same way. In fact, the ocean at ~0-10m and 10-30m isn’t even the same habitat.
When it comes to maximas, I’m not aware of anyone that has had a long-term success (3-5 years+ of constant growth - just like anything in this hobby, if it’s not growing, it’s dying) with a maxima with less than 400-500 par. In their natural habitat they get 1000 to 2000 easily. Ever seen them in their natural habitat? I have, in multiple places. The amount of PAR (not to mention UV and IR) they receive is insanity.
I have half a dozen maximas from Okinawa, each are putting on a new layer of scutes every ~2 months and all are under at least 450 par, some under nearly 1000. I’ve never seen them grow under less than 450. This is one of the reasons, I believe, that keeping maxima/Crocea clams stopped being much a thing when MH lighting stopped being a thing.
FWIW, I temporarily had to keep my largest maxima (about 25cm, weighing several kilos!) on the sand bed for about 2 months at ~225 PAR. It didn’t grow at all under that PAR…which meant it wasn’t meeting it’s energy requirements (aka dying).
