so the wife said...

[Raggamuffin]

After all the money I have spent on tanks I finally set up what will be a great little SPS tank. My wife sees a couple of the bills :cry: and says if I plan on spending anymore money she needs a clam in my tank. Long story short tonight she ordered a derasa clam, if you look at divers den today or tomorrow you will likely see the one she got as the clams section pic... it is gorgeous but definately NOT what I planned on lol!

My question is: In a very low nutrient SPS tank am I going to have to feed this thing? DD has it up as 2" which is right at the "it is still a baby" stage, and derasa's get huge so not sure if it counts as even smaller. Does the "baby" stage change as you move across the board from crocs to gigas or is 2" universal?

My param's are spot on (and I am to lazy to run downstairs and get my note book at 1am) but I have phos leaching from my pukani rock still, 0 PO4 in the water can't grow ANY macros in the fuge but getting small clumps of HA on rocks?? Will that small ammount bother a clam that small? I know it wouldn't even be noticed by a 3or 4 incher.

 

[Doe5ia14]

I can't answer your questions about feeding the clam. But I do know Derasa clams grow big! That means there will be a valid excuse for an upgrade later on! :bigsmile:

 

[skinz78]

You won't need to feed the clam as long as you have fish in the tank. They take up ammonia so you should be good there. I wouldn't worry about the clam size, shouldn't be a factor with a Derasa, they can get big quickly though.

 

[Raggamuffin]

you dont want to hear what he is going into then.... I SHOULD be able to keep him for a year or two, lucky for me I volunteer at the local butteryfly house and over the last year we have set up 23 fish tanks there (all but 3 of which are salt) and have a nice happy 600g SPS tank he can go into later... possible the 480 LPS/softy tank, will deal with that when I have to choose.

1 last question. what kind of flat surface should I put under him? I have a few flat 2.5" ceramic frag plugs would one of those work?

 

[skinz78]

First off, we got's to see some pic's of the tanks in the butterfly house!!!

And yeah a frag disc would be great for him to attach too.

 

[Murfman]

You could always set up a fuge for the SPS tank with nothing but clams in it ;-)

 

[Dave3112]

You could always set up a fuge for the SPS tank with nothing but clams in it ;-)

NOW that would be EPIC!!! Great Idea!

 

[Reeferon]

First off, we got's to see some pic's of the tanks in the butterfly house!!!

+1... Would definitely like to see that.

 

[Raggamuffin]

LOL ok will snap a few pics of the butterfly house when I get a chance. I will try to decribe the insanity of my tank, 40b display 75g sump, 20l fuge, 20l remote DSB, yes you read that right I have INSANE filtration including Skinz78's old skimmer

The butterfly house has for display 600g, 480, 250,250, 210, 180, 125, 125, 75, 75, 75 29, 29, and we are putting in a touch pool. Behind the scenes tanks are 210,210,180,180, 90,90,90,90, and a 30 hospital tank. Just about every tank has an equal or larger than display sump.

Now the crazy part about the butterfly house, all but 3 tanks came from 1 mans house, his name was Chuck Purdy (you can google sertoma butterfly house and get vids I bet). He was fighting a LONG battle with cancer and came to the point he didn't have much fight left, he didn't want the banks or his family to get the tanks and animals just to sell them off or let them sit and die. He donated it all and told us to hurry up and get it done so he can see it, we finished the day after christmas last year and he came in to see it then passed on new years day.

 

[secretreefer]

Sertoma Butterfly House


COOL!!!

 

[skinz78]

Ahh I think I remember Chuck, what was his name on the forums? If I remember correctly he had some insane tanks and one was literally littered top to bottom with Ricordea.

 

[Raggamuffin]

YEP! thats him he bought something like 20 rics and put them in a sand bed cube, let them split naturally and you could NOT see the sand bed after awhile. I guess Copps has the same kind of "substrate" aka a ric bed.

 

[skinz78]

Didn't he have a Octopus tank and a Mantis Shrimp tank too? I remember his reef tank was downright insane!

 

[Salty Dog]

I have a 250g SPS dominated tank with 3 clams one is maybe 7" the other 2 are like 4". Same thing my wife wanted them so Poof there in my tank. I dont feed them at all and they grew a lot in the 4 yrs. I just keep my calc @ 450, alk @9.2, good luck

 

[turbo21]

Didn't he have a Octopus tank and a Mantis Shrimp tank too? I remember his reef tank was downright insane!

Skinz,

i didnt put 2 and 2 together, but i remember following his posts on RC and saltwaterfish from the start his username was goodwin



here is his rc link http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1447746&highlight=goodwin&page=37

and reef builders. My new 600 gallon display

sad to see his last post on reef builders was in the middle of December last year

 

[skinz78]

Ahh yeah wasn't it goodwin9 or something like that? Did you get some pic's of the tanks at your work yet?

 

[fletcher2007]

any pics of the clam?