Maxima Clam LED Research

A

AlreadyDead

Hi DFWMAS,

So I purchased a clam yesterday I believe it's a Maxima Clam but I could be wrong. Going to try and raise him/her in my 14G Nano tank using LEDS. When I bought it had great color and fast response time when it closes. From my understanding those are good signs of a healthy and stress free clam. I placed the clam on a flat piece of rock in the center of the tank after a 3 hour slow drip hanging acclimation. I used the flat rock in the event I want to move the clam to a new location and this way I will not have to detach his/her foot. So far I have read they really do not need to be target fed. On can use some plankton type food but to watch out for them since they can cause a spike and crash in any and especially small tanks. I know about keep calcium up since they like to drink it like bud light on sale at a noon ranges game. If anyone has any tips or hints they want to throw at me exp using LEDS I am up for it. I do plan on watching it close to see if it's not responding and I do have a hanging light Hally to put it until I can re-home it. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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14 hours Later
~ Fully out of the shell, color looks good, still has good reaction time.
 
I have been wanting to get a clam for my 28g nano intermediate with LED's. I will be following your thread.....keep the updates coming as you progress!
 
Unless you customized the LED setup I doubt you have much luck. The stock hood is pretty week and these animals need a ton of light
 
That looks like a crocea to me.

Where did you get it? I rarely see clams anymore around town and when I do they are overpriced, especially the maxima's. I'm hoping for some nice reasonably priced ones at MACNA.
 
I think it all depends on your LEDs. Photons are photons (read an interesting Coral Magazine article on this recently), and you need to have the intensity in order to sustain clams. I have 2 clams (Maxima and I think the other is a Deresa) and they did fine under 90 3W LEDs (115g tank). I'm no expert, but I think 2-2.5W of LEDs per gallon would be fine. How many and what kind of LEDs do you have?
 
Same here. I'm holding out until MACNA. This was one of the reasons why I went with 2 X 250 MH on my DAS Neo 90. Lighting no longer becomes an issue. :)

@Opus wrote:
 
I dont think LEd's will be a problem, the question is if he is using the stock LEDS that come with the tank. If so those are really weak
 
I had problems with a Maxima and Crocea under AI LED's in one of our displays. Mantle opened great for a month or two. Then, slowly but surely pinched up. Also, color had faded a noticeable amount. I finally removed the Maxima yesterday and noticed that it seemed VERY 'weak'. Like it didn't have the strength to close the shell like bivalves normally do. Back under halides now to see if I can get it to recover. That was the 3rd and last clam I'll put under LED lights.

It isn't about how bright the light is, it's about what the light consists of. LED's need some work before they are ready to keep more demanding animals long term.
 
There is absolutely no question that clams can thrive under leds. I have a Derasa, Maxima, and Crocea under leds and the Derasa and Maxima have been there for a year and a half and grown more under leds than when I had MH. I haven't had the Crocea as long but it has done very well and is growing. I'm surprised there are still people out there that believe leds won't grow high light corals or clams. Mine are plain old white and blue and they are only 1 watt each (gasp!). I've been told I'll never grow anything under leds much less 1 watt leds.

Here's my derasa on the bottom of my 75 gallon, a little over 2 inches.

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Now, over 6 inches.

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Maxima, also on the bottom, about 2 inches.

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I don't have a close up but that's the same clam on the bottom left. 4-5 inches.

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I also have a crocea that's doing great. Not on the bottom but about 6 inches off the bottom.

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If you can't grow clams under leds then you don't have enough of them or your water chemistry is off or pests/fish are causing problems. It's not because of leds.
 
I am thinking you maybe right there is no way some people can be able to while others can't. It has to be another factor. We shall see only time will tell for me. Do you do anything special as far as how much time in LEDs you give them. Does more blue or white. If you can think of anything let me know. Or if you ran anything higher or lower as far as water par
 
I run my blues 12 hours a day and the whites for 10. Blues on 10am, whites on 11am, whites off 9pm blues off 10pm. That's it. No phytoplankton feeding or anything like that. All 3 of my clams have the new white shell around the rim all the time.
 
I as well have two maxima clams growing under LEDS. Both have been thriving for several months. One was a large clam I got from pacific East and the other was a 1 inch clam I got locally. Both are on my sandbed at the very bottom of the tank. I also have no lenses on the leds.
 
Clam is still looking great. Will get some pictures up. I saw another members clam like mine and boy was his clams mantle open up. THe clam looked like it was going to split in half. So now I am wondering if there is soemthing wrong with mine or his just was bigger or soemthing. It was cool

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