clam question

[scub steve]

can you keep a clam without a calcium reactor? just with dosing

[demon666]

what you see your brothers and now you have the clam bug?

[Scavenger]

My clam has been in my tank for approx 2 years with no calcium reactor and is happy as a .....er ahh, Well, he's happy as a clam.

[Ruth]

I kept 1 crocea clam for about 2 months before I brought my reactor on line and he did just fine and is still happy. You just have to be diligent in your dosing and testing. When they are growing they are real calcium hogs. It' probably a good idea to at least drip kalk for your top off water.

[scub steve]

always had the clam bug but im going to buy one of his so i need too keep up on the info

[scub steve]

also what should i dose with ?

[Ruth]

A good 2 part solutions like C-balance and there are others. I also notice in your signature that you have a snowflake eel. I don't know anything about them other than they are supposed to be messy eaters and can making keeping water quality good more challenging. Don't know if they will eat clam mantles or not.

[scub steve]

ya im going to get rid of him he will go in my other tank not the one that my clam is going in

[seashells]

Have 2 clams. They adjusted their position for lighting, otherwise they're happy. Have a crocea and squamosa clam. Just dosing with C-balance. Hope to move to a calcium reactor over the summer.

Shellie

[mark]

How about keeping a clam without dosing or a reactor, just routine water changes?

[TNTCanada]

I have two clams both are doing really well. I do a two part alk and Ca no reactor. They have growen quite fast sense I bought them.

Cheers
Tyler

[untamed]

I have a happy clam. I started out using 2 part additives, but that couldn't keep pace and I've moved to Kalk. (the clam wasn't the only reason for the increased Ca/Alk usage)

As for whether or not you could do it with only water changes....I'm going to say "maybe, but no"

With LARGE enough water changes you might be able to hold your Ca/Alk at acceptable levels...but you would get a steady decline. If the clam lives a while it is going to get larger and demand more Ca/Alk. Eventually, you'll need some sort of Ca/Alk supplementation, so you might as well start there now.