clams

clams under pc's, now ive seen the convos before of not putting clams under pc's, but what about t5's and vho's? i know where there is a clam in a 55 bowfron under 4x39w t5's, just under the 3w per gallon. it has been there for a while and has doubled in size in the past few months i have seen it regularly, but what about clams in nanos under power compacts, 2x36w, 3w per gal.   now this clam has been on the bottom of this tank and doing great. any word on this thanks.

I was told at the Mountain West Reef Fest by one of the speakers to smack anyone who uses the watts/gallon rule. I guess I will smack you at the next meeting...lol.

Honestly I think that you should have MH, T5, or LED to sustain clams properly, MH being the best. I bought my clam from a tank with PC lights, and it was barely surviving. I think it has doubled in size in the last few months after getting real light. The color has completely changed too. It was very transparent and brown, now it is full of color and bright. This tells me that it was loosing its zoazanthellae and wasn't getting the food it needed from the light.

arthuriv wrote: I don't understand why it would matter if you have MH's, T5's, or PC's. I thought as long as you have the wattage that is really all that matters, right? I want to put a clam in my 55 gallon tank and I'm currently running 322 watts of PC's soon to be 384 watts. Why would this not be good enough? Thank You! Arthur

nope it isn't wattage per gallon. it is dependent on many factors, but basically the only way to measure usable light is PAR or PPFD. there are many different lights out there and they each have a different amount of PAR that is actually produced. then you can use things like reflectors, number of bulbs, wattage, ballasts, ect to increase the output. PC lights will work in many cases, but really dont have the intensity that our corals need to thrive. Spectrum also comes into play when choosing lighting.


Edited by downhill_biker - November 09 2009 at 12:04am

I do have sps lps leathers and softies all mixed in at different levels from top of the rocks to the sand bed and everything is thriving. I think I'll be alright

Really you have doubts of sps thriving under pc's? I will tomorow check out the post in Buy sell trade by Pmguernsey all the sps he is selling lives under pc's   But I will get pics if you don't believe. FYI the types I'm growing are cactus coral orange digi, monti, and cats paw.

I have grown clams and sps under pc's but they were only in 6" deep water under 130 watts of pc lights half 10 k half blue and I made sure to change my bulbs every 6 months alternating so one bulb would be replaced and 3 months later the other would get replaced and I still think they have survived and thrived amazingly better in my tanks with halides.

I agree with you on the prefer better light. But I'm limited here all I have left is a 24jbj with stock pc's ran off of a workhorse 5 ballast. I think if it is placed mid-top of the tank it will do just as good.

I have a clam under pc at the bottum of my 29 and it has been there for about a year now no problems it is allways out and is a beautiful blue color I will post pics later. I do agree that better lighting would be better, this is obvious because it cost more.

Edited by PMGuernsey - November 09 2009 at 3:12pm

Jeffs_little_ocean wrote: ...If you have 384 watts of PC's but half the light or 192 watts are being shot up into the reflector and then right back down into the bulb, that light isnt doing the corals much good. With a T5 or a MH and a good reflector you can get double or tripple the useful light or par with much less wattage.

I disagree. The reason for reflectors is to bounce light back to the tank. Some of the light shines through the tube but the best reflectors send the light back down around the side of the tube and diagonally down into the tank. VHO and PC tubes with internal reflectors don't need an external reflector.

Edited by Mark Peterson - November 10 2009 at 5:56am