Derek's 225g - Magnifica / SPS Reef

[Darkxerox]

John from Clammania says the safe zone PAR for clams are:
Derasa: 150-350
Maxima: 150-350+
Crocea: 200-400+

However, the more PAR the better as long as you acclimate them to higher PAR, you can also bleach clams. Also keep your water quality good and you won’t have to feed them. I currently have a 2” Crocea at 250 PAR and have noticed the growth.

Yeah I'd shoot for 250 minimum. I've never kept maximas successfully in the LED era until I kept this current one at 250+. It stopped growing at 150ish and looked sluggish, then I bought it up to 250 and the growth came back quickly. Definitely recommend the Fatheree clam book too!

 

[derek_SR]

Thank you both, what should I look for as an indicator that it’s not getting enough light?

 

[Darkxerox]

Thank you both, what should I look for as an indicator that it’s not getting enough light?

No white growth edge under the mantle. That's the most obvious one.

 

[derek_SR]

Some pics from above with the flow off:

Seeing some really good growth lately, though it’s a struggle keeping temp and PH up this time of year. I had a second BRS heater die in <7 months…

 

[derek_SR]

The flow has created a bare spot in the center of the tank where the two gyres come together. I think I’m fine with it and will just put some encrusting corals there at some point. Things definitely seem to enjoy the higher flow in general.

 

[Coral reefer]

What are you doing for flow in there currently?

 

[derek_SR]

What are you doing for flow in there currently?

I use Maxspect Gyre XF350, one on each end of the tank at the top. They move a ton of water, and generally perform very well and are easy to manage (at least via the WaveEngine on my Hydros). But performance falls off quickly when not cleaned regularly - like every couple of months. And after the issue with magnet bursting and rusting I don't really trust them in general.

 

[Darkxerox]

I use Maxspect Gyre XF350, one on each end of the tank at the top. They move a ton of water, and generally perform very well and are easy to manage (at least via the WaveEngine on my Hydros). But performance falls off quickly when not cleaned regularly - like every couple of months. And after the issue with magnet bursting and rusting I don't really trust them in general.

How have you been cleaning them? I've had Vortech magnets blow up on me in the past too so it's a common thing. But knock on wood since I switched to citric acid things have looked better vs. vinegar.

 

[derek_SR]

How have you been cleaning them? I've had Vortech magnets blow up on me in the past too so it's a common thing. But knock on wood since I switched to citric acid things have looked better vs. vinegar.

I’ve only ever used citric acid. I think this one was just a product defect…it died young.

 

[derek_SR]

Clownfish spawned! First time for me, these two only paired up officially in the last couple months. There’s some glare on the glass this time of day but you can sort of make out the eggs that the male is booping.

 

[ReyDeFarts]

That's awesome! Congrats

 

[Kensington Reefer]

That first time is so cool

 

[derek_SR]

Woke up this morning to a dead clam. Just last night it was vibrant blue, open, firmly attached. Seemed like it had been doing really well, then this morning it was pretty much gone. Some tattered remains left inside the shell - seems like something ate it.

Maybe the mantis shrimp? I also have emerald crabs, a large coral banded shrimp, several cleaner shrimp, and a flame angel. Whatever it was did a lot of damage in a single night.

Here it was just a couple days ago, and looked like this before bed last night:

 

[ReyDeFarts]

Well that sucks! If something attempts to attack them, I thought they closed their shell? Such a beautiful clam too. How long did you have it?

 

[Darkxerox]

Woke up this morning to a dead clam. Just last night it was vibrant blue, open, firmly attached. Seemed like it had been doing really well, then this morning it was pretty much gone. Some tattered remains left inside the shell - seems like something ate it.

Maybe the mantis shrimp? I also have emerald crabs, a large coral banded shrimp, several cleaner shrimp, and a flame angel. Whatever it was did a lot of damage in a single night.

View attachment 51039

Here it was just a couple days ago, and looked like this before bed last night:
View attachment 51040

Dang that sucks, can you take a picture of it in daylight after you clean it? Also no pyramid snails on the underside?

 

[derek_SR]

Dang that sucks, can you take a picture of it in daylight after you clean it? Also no pyramid snails on the underside?

Yeah will do - I didn't see anything on there, the shell was pretty clean when I got it. I'm just surprised at how quickly it disappeared, literally overnight. Very little flesh left that I can see inside the shell. I'm hanging out at Kenny's but will get some better pics later. My water parameters are even pretty closely matched to Tu's system where it came from, and it really looked like it was doing super well.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Damn clam!

 

[derek_SR]

Picked up this fella from Kenny. Already begging at the glass like the tangs!

Kept him in the acclimation box the first day, then released him along with the mirror trick and the tang army has mostly left him alone. The PBT chases him some but he does a nice job sticking up for himself and is an aggressive eater so far.

 

[derek_SR]

The CBB continues to be a great eater, mixing it up with the tangs at the feeder thingy:

Also got a new skimmer, upgraded my Deltec 1000i to a Reef Octo 220 INT. The deltec was filling up daily and with my heavy bioload I wanted to try something with a larger pump and more air volume. The Reef Octo started skimming immediately and pulls out a LOT more stuff. It also has a massive cup so I don't need to empty it nearly as often!

I plan on slow-dosing diluted lanthanum chloride into the ozone nipple on the volute as kind of an experiment - it arrives tomorrow. My goal is to get phos from around .5 down to around .15 and tailor the slow-dose to sort of keep it there....will report back.

 

[derek_SR]

I decided to move away from Kalk. I started with kalk in the spirit of simplicity, but i've decided to stop with it, also in the spirit of simplicity...

I don't have the space or desire to mix up huge batches of kalk, so I decided when setting up this tank to use the Avast Kalk Stirrer. It's designed well but I was seeing a lot of fluctuations in alk and ph, and just generally struggled to get consistent saturated kalk out of the thing. The idea was to monitor it with a PH probe, but those probes can barely be trusted on good days, and when exposed to such high PH all day I found it quickly de-calibrated and wandered all over the place and was generally useless. Dosing kalk also consumed two dedicated outlets - one for the versa and one for the stirrer, so it'll be nice to get those back.

I switched to ESV 2-part and already appreciate the consistency. I measure alk twice a day with the Alkatronic so it's nice to be able to judge alk consumption now without just wondering if it's the kalk's saturation wandering around...

One less piece of equipment and 2 fewer outlets is a win too. Maybe once my tank is consuming enough alk that I can replace the ATO with kalk I'll go to mixing it traditionally into the ATO and pumping it to the tank via versa, but for now I think ESV is the way to go...

PH is still ~ 8.05 - 8.35 without Kalk and I'm good with that.