Hey everyone,
So I have a 6 inch Maxima clam, that’s been in my care for about the past 9 months. I bought it at 6 inches, which leads me to believe that it is a wild collected specimen from Tahiti. Things were great for about the first 4 months but then the mantle started bleaching (it seems) in certain spots. This coincides with when I started battling my second wave of hair algae in my tank, which caused some of the parameters to shift up and down, as well as the clam being moved around as I attempted to brush away the hair algae. The hair algae is finally on its way out after a ton of effort from me, and the clam hasn’t really been disturbed for the past month. However, the bleaching still continues to spread across the mantle very slowly.
This clam sits about 14 inches underneath the waters surface, under a 400 watt Radium metal halide. I switched bulbs 3 months ago, so this could also be a cause of the bleaching, although I figured clams could never really get too much light. Also, some of my SPS still appear bleached too. I think a lot of this has to do with Hair algae and some Dino’s sucking up all of the nutrients from the water, however my nutrient levels have been brought up and have been stable for the past 1-2 months.
N= 15 ppm, Phos= 0.06. all stable at 8.4, Cal. 500
Has anybody ever experienced this before? Should I lower the clam? (Might be difficult with it being attached)
Would feeding live phyto help it?
So I have a 6 inch Maxima clam, that’s been in my care for about the past 9 months. I bought it at 6 inches, which leads me to believe that it is a wild collected specimen from Tahiti. Things were great for about the first 4 months but then the mantle started bleaching (it seems) in certain spots. This coincides with when I started battling my second wave of hair algae in my tank, which caused some of the parameters to shift up and down, as well as the clam being moved around as I attempted to brush away the hair algae. The hair algae is finally on its way out after a ton of effort from me, and the clam hasn’t really been disturbed for the past month. However, the bleaching still continues to spread across the mantle very slowly.
This clam sits about 14 inches underneath the waters surface, under a 400 watt Radium metal halide. I switched bulbs 3 months ago, so this could also be a cause of the bleaching, although I figured clams could never really get too much light. Also, some of my SPS still appear bleached too. I think a lot of this has to do with Hair algae and some Dino’s sucking up all of the nutrients from the water, however my nutrient levels have been brought up and have been stable for the past 1-2 months.
N= 15 ppm, Phos= 0.06. all stable at 8.4, Cal. 500
Has anybody ever experienced this before? Should I lower the clam? (Might be difficult with it being attached)
Would feeding live phyto help it?