Brian's Clam Specific Reef Tank Project

[Etaloche]

I have been toying with this idea for a while. The need for a 2nd tank / frag tank has been creeping up on me as my main tank starts to become overfilled with livestock. I've finally decided to shut down my DIY frag tank and start up a new tank that will be focused on clams. I have not seen many tank builds that had the Tridacna giant clams as the main focus and I've always been in love with them, so that is why I decided on a clam tank. Other than clams I plan to mainly have SPS, Euphyllia, Acans, maybe Goniopora, and solitary corals such as scoly, wellso, and trachy. I have learned a lot from my first tank build and I am going to completely avoid invasive corals like xenia and GSP for sure :lol:

The tank in mind was the IM Lagoon 50 which has dimensions I absolutely love for this project in mind. Someone recently posted a RSM250 that is also hard to pass by... Today's my birthday, so I think today will be the day I pull the trigger on a tank :mrgreen: I have no plans for other equipment as of just yet. I'll put it together as I go.

I've already started to break down most of my big colonies and traded them in to the LFS for some giant clams to stock up the tank with. They are in quarantine for now as they are riddled with aptasia and bryopsis. Hopefully I'll be able to source nicer clams once the tank is going.

Here are some photos of my clams as a teaser :wink:

This Crocea has been my longest clam inhabitant
https://imgur.com/b20VcB8.jpg

Derasa clam from LFS couple months ago.
https://imgur.com/85LeBrl.jpg

This Squamosa is a rescue I'm attempting to nurture back to health. It was severely gaping and has a bleached spot by the exhalent siphon. Hanging in there, but as with clams you never know...
https://imgur.com/tIAFuzC.jpg

Crocea I traded for yesterday, also not in the best shape and hoping it'll color up more. It was getting blasted with too much light.
https://imgur.com/Oa5wnZn.jpg

[straightrazorguy]

Happy birthday Brian! I am envious of your clams. I'm in the market for a Crocea clam too!

[WarDog]

Sweet! Happy Birthday! I love the IM lagoon 50 too, I almost got one a month back. Looking forward to this.

[DKoKoMan]

Pretty neat build and I too have not seen a separate clam system. I will be tagging along.

[Etaloche]

Pretty neat build and I too have not seen a separate clam system. I will be tagging along.

Sweet! Happy Birthday! I love the IM lagoon 50 too, I almost got one a month back. Looking forward to this.

Thanks guys, worked hard to move enough inventory to afford this (hopefully) lol. Really looking forward to the tank, I want to keep it nice and simple this time. No complex equipment.

[dino]

im too nervous to even get one. kudos to you and best of luck

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Looks like a nice start to your clam collection/system. Looking forward to seeing future updates.

Anthony

[Etaloche]

Happy birthday Brian! I am envious of your clams. I'm in the market for a Crocea clam too!

Thanks! Crocea are very nice and don't get big. I hope you find one :biggrin:

im too nervous to even get one. kudos to you and best of luck

I know how nervous one can get with clams, but I don't think a reef is complete without one!

Looks like a nice start to your clam collection/system. Looking forward to seeing future updates.

Anthony

Thanks Anthony, looks like we're both getting back into out aquarium projects at the same time

[Etaloche]

So yesterday I actually pulled the trigger on the IM Lagoon 50, but it was too big and there was simply no way to convince my family to let me keep it.
I had my dream tank for about 24 hours, alas I had to go and return for a Lagoon 25 instead.

It was nice looking at it for 24 hours. I'll be sure to purchase it again one day when I have space. It is absolutely stunner of a tank.

https://imgur.com/KRKVDFX.jpg

https://imgur.com/vNlB9Ct.jpg

Went back to get the 25 instead, saved a bunch of money by downsizing so I'll put that towards some nice clams.

https://imgur.com/JFkV2us.jpg

Craigslist has yet to fail me. The APS tank from IM for this tank costs more than the tank itself and I simply could not bring myself to purchase one. I went to IKEA immediately after picking up the tank, but could not find a cabinet that fit the odd dimension of 24"x20" that this tank has. While I was in IKEA I started scrolling through what must've been at least couple dozen pages of craigslist ads when I finally found a suitable stand. I immediately went to go see it and the cabinet was simply perfect. Measuring 24" x 22" it is built like a tank and the hardware is top notch. They told me one of the family members had it custom made years ago. For $50 I think this is the deal of the day, not even a fraction of what a new stand from IM would've cost me.

https://imgur.com/bAZsuOs.jpg

https://imgur.com/Lg4lVak.jpg

https://imgur.com/L2vgK5n.jpg

and with that, the project is fully under way! :laluot_26:

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Yeah, I get a lot of my fish stands/tanks off CL. Usually can find a nice cabinet for fish stand if you look for a while.

Too bad about about the bigger tank being a no go.

Anthony

[DorySaid]

Don't see to many clam tanks. Those looks gorgeous. I am hopeful you'll be able to nurse them back. Good luck with your build.

[smokinreefer]

Very cool!

Hopefully you can find some nicely colored and patterned specimens.

Clams are looking good! Hope that squammy recovers for you.

[Etaloche]

Very cool!

Hopefully you can find some nicely colored and patterned specimens.

Clams are looking good! Hope that squammy recovers for you.

Thank you! I've already started shopping for clams. A shop called Marine Experience out in Edmonton has a very nice selection which I've had my eyes on. Not sure how I feel about shipping clams in the middle of winter. Anyone have experience shopping from these guys?

[Etaloche]

I wanted to start this post with a shout out to fellow members on this forum. It's always appreciated to have a community like Canreef with members willing to help one another.

Seahorse_Fanatic gave me some rock to scape the tank with. The tank is pretty shallow which makes it pretty limiting to have grand rockscape so I plan to keep it simple.

https://imgur.com/mJrhtwc.jpg

KPG007 lent me his spare Kessil A160 to mock up my tank with, and to use it on my holding tank once this tank is up and running. Although it's not fully operational, it will work for my purposes.

https://imgur.com/Tj30COC.jpg

JamRobo pulled a mangrove plant out for me to try in my new tank.

https://imgur.com/0roreQk.jpg


As for the tank build, I started out by hacking away at some of the return fittings. Space in the "sump" area is pretty limited and every millimeter counts when it comes to fitting as much equipment as possible. This fitting was getting in the way of the Bubble Magus QQ1 skimmer which I've decided to use.

https://imgur.com/0xY5sjU.jpg


Cutting down the fitting above gives me enough clearance from the return hoses to install the skimmer. You can also see that I've upgraded the return pump to a Tunze 1073.008 which I had lying around. It's the same turnover rate as the stock pump, but it uses half the energy and much quieter; going to assume it'll be more reliable too.

https://imgur.com/UjAxnSi.jpg


As mentioned, my skimmer of choice is the QQ1 from Bubble Magus. I thought about the HOB-1.5 from Aquamaxx, but it just wasn't in the budget and I had the QQ1 leftover from another tank. It is rated to filter a tank this size, so I figured I'll invest the funds on other things. If needed I can always upgrade. This skimmer worked great for me while I had it running.

https://imgur.com/09rBHFK.jpg


Moving on, I picked up 2 of the MiniMax reactors from IM. I heard some bad reviews on these guys, but they were pretty inexpensive because I got a good deal from the LFS, and I feel like if tuned correctly they will work well. I will be running biopellets and GFO in the reactors. The biopellets should work fine. I have some skepticism about how well the GFO reactor will hold up after extended use.

https://imgur.com/ekSOgXI.jpg


Next I worked on filling up the caddy for the IM tanks. They are quite well made with different configurations that are possible.

Started up by crushing up some marinepure blocks. These are super easy to break apart with just your hands.

https://imgur.com/R1Vh0Xt.jpg


Will be using 1/4 of the block on this tank, rest I threw in my tain display.

https://imgur.com/NbtkIEx.jpg


This is the caddy configuration I settled on. Course sponge, fine sponge, marinepure blocks, fine sponge, carbon, fine sponge.

https://imgur.com/aIzSHMk.jpg


Here's what it looks like installed on one side.

https://imgur.com/4NcapJV.jpg


Other side will have the filter sock. ATO feed line also mocked up with some cheap fittings from home depot. Will be run by a MJ1200 that I have lying around along with my old JBJ top off that I will be modifying slightly. I'm really just trying to set up this tank with old equipment I have lying around as much as possible.

https://imgur.com/pxldS9z.jpg


For now the filter media and biopellets will be left sitting in one of my nano tanks so they can get established and I will be able to have a cycled tank pretty much immediately when I'm up and running.

https://imgur.com/SDgRyCk.jpg


Heater of choice was a titanium heater. Originally got the Eheim heater, but they ended up being too tall and I wasn't going to have enough outlets to have 2 heaters as a backup, so I decided to go with what I'm hoping is supposed to be more "reliable".

https://imgur.com/vD7Aco5.jpg


Here's what that all looks like together. It's pretty crowded back there, but everything fits well.

https://imgur.com/r7jlmfE.jpg

https://imgur.com/CmfDXJq.jpg


Some electrical components still to be installed. 2x PB4 will be connected to my RKE controller which will take care of this tank alongside my main display. ATO container is one I've been using on my 10G nano. Hopefully it's big enough that I don't need to refill too often.

https://imgur.com/2eG7DS6.jpg


SL1 and the JBJ ATO will be brought over from the nano tank. The JBJ I'm hoping to hook up an optical sensor to give it a bit of an upgrade. a floatswitch will be hooked up the the SL1 in case of overflow, and one other switch will go in the top off container to act as the dry run protection.

https://imgur.com/K5bYuJo.jpg


Whew! she's coming together nicely.

https://imgur.com/8Y8Bpcf.jpg


Some bonus pics of my rescue clams. Really amazing what couple days of good water parameters and sufficient lighting can do for a clam. Color is starting to come back and this Crocea is opening up nicely.

https://imgur.com/HasDpXX.jpg


The Squamosa is opening up nicely too, but not sure if gaping further. It's always hard to tell. Still hanging in there though.

https://imgur.com/LDOt2Sl.jpg

[Etaloche]

So what's left to complete this tank and get it up and running,

Lights:
I've always used LEDs from a company called SB Reef Lights. I'm very satisfied and they released their newest model not so long ago which I want to try. Part of me also want to try something new. The true and tested lights from Ecotech and Kessil are just so expensive that I don't see myself going that route. I'm also set on the idea of hanging the lights off some hangers that will be attached to the back of the stand. There's not much room to hang stuff off the aquarium rim so I don't want the light fixture arms to crowd up the rim even further.

Some type of cooling:
Not sure if there's any room left on the rim of the tank to install a hang-on fan I've ordered.

Dosing pump/dosing lines:
I will eventually get a dosing pump when needed, but what already worries me is that there is no room to hang a type of dosing line holder on the rim of the aquarium as I'm out of space as mentioned above. Things are starting to get real tight in the sump area and this seems to be the limitation of these AIO aquariums. I will have to come up with something in the future.

[Etaloche]

Tank is up and running, but I lost all my livestock in my holding tank due to a recent power outage during a snow storm including 3 of the clams :cry:

Will be moving forward and updating the tank, but it might be a while before I can recoup enough to get clams back in the tank. Only one that survived was my Crocea in my main tank.

[Myka]

Bummer on the power outage!!! :(

Awesome stand score! I think you need to switch out those flowered knobs though. Hehe.

Why would you put biopellets on a new tank, especially a clam tank? Clams eat up a whack of nitrate, I'm not sure biopellets would be a good thing. Do you have a specific reason?

Bayside Corals has a bunch of Blue Squamosa and Crocea in stock right now. A few of them on the website. www.baysidecorals.com

[chizerbunoi]

The build looks really nice. Sorry to hear about the crash/loss. How long were you without power from the storm?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Etaloche]

Bummer on the power outage!!! :(

Awesome stand score! I think you need to switch out those flowered knobs though. Hehe.

Why would you put biopellets on a new tank, especially a clam tank? Clams eat up a whack of nitrate, I'm not sure biopellets would be a good thing. Do you have a specific reason?

Bayside Corals has a bunch of Blue Squamosa and Crocea in stock right now. A few of them on the website. www.baysidecorals.com

Not too sure how scientifically true that is, I keep my main tank ULN and the Crocea in it has thrived for almost 2 years now. The clam tank will also be doubling up as a frag tank for my nicer SPS, so I need it to be low nutrient as well. I also like to keep my fish well fed so the biopellets should help. It will take some time for me to get the funds to get clams in the tank now as I am in the middle of trying to start up a business for my succulent plants.

The build looks really nice. Sorry to hear about the crash/loss. How long were you without power from the storm?


I was about 14 hours without power, but the holding tank was only 10G so temps went from 81 where I keep it down to 71-72 before power came back.