If you were designing a Clam-Only tank...how would you do it?

[Absinthe]

Help me get my thoughts together on a clam only tank...or a clam bed type tank.

I was thinking somewhere along the lines of a 40 or 50 breeder...open "look down" or zero edge wont work.

I would like to hear ideas and opinions as far as:

lighting, K temp of bulbs, color of sand, filtration, water movement.

Anyone have pics of clam-only tanks?

 

[Hawkeye]

the lighting would be different depending on whether you were going to have gigas/squamosa/derasa in the tank or croceas/maximas.

Also - besides lighting, you'll need to be prepared to dose the tank with phyto/food for clams that are smaller in size (I believe the rule of thumb is under 4 inches).

You'll want to be careful not to introduce any parasitic snails. Also while clams are not fish eaters, there are enough stories of fish swimming into a clam mouth accidentally - so keep that in mind before you put the $100 fish in there with the clam.

Finally - if you ever do get a really big clam - keep in mind that they have very powerful "muscles" for pushing water in/out and it's not unheard of for some of the gigas clams to spray water all over the canopy of a tank.

They don't call gigas a tank buster for nothing...so make sure your tank is sized appropriately if you get the easy to keep but fast growing gigas.

Good luck! It'll be great to see a clam-only tank.

Oh and I've said this before but not sure if you have one or not - absolutely no horseshoe crabs. Unless you plan on giving the crab some wasabi with it's clam dinner.

 

[Phyl]

The best way to see a clam is from the top. How could you do a tank so that you could easily see down into it? You say that an "open lookdown" or zero edge tank won't due, why's that? Just curious about the reasoning. I'd love something low that you could easily stand over and see into. In order for that to be effective the surface would have to be pretty tame (and the gas exchange in the sump).

But being able to look down into the tank would require pendants rather than a canopy.

I think a nice pink sand would contrast the blues of the clams that I'd want to keep. You'd have to pick a sand that complimented/contrasted against the clam, IMO.

Would there be rock in this clam display?

As for lighting, I'm a big fan of 12k Reflux bulbs. I just love the blue cast they have. Those would be my choice, but I'm sure that everyone has their bulb preference with color anywhere from yellow to blue!