I've staged my clam additions in my 93 cube (130+ system volume) over about 8 months and done careful testing along the way to modify my dosing regiment. Since the actual CA depletion due to clams is somewhat fuzzy (but well known to be huge) I thought I'd throw this up.
I maintain CA in the 425-450 range and pretty much dose 1:1 Alk and CA using BRS 2-Part bulk. I do weekly 10% PWC's using Salinity.
My original dosing was right around 100 ml/day with no clams but several large SPS colonies and many smaller/mini colonies.
Clam #1 is about a 5-6" Viatnamese Teardrop Maxima. Dosing requirements only went up to about 110 ml per day of 2-Part.
Clam #2 is about a 7-8" Derasa. Dosing requirements up to about 140 ml per day.
Clam #3 is the killer. Squamosa with probably close to a 12" shell and 16" open. At first my requirements only went up about 40 ml but now I dose 225 ml per day since he has gotten acclimated and growing well. He's grown a solid 1/2" if not more in a couple months:bigeyes:
While none of this is greatly scientific and obviously my other clams and SPS colonies have been getting much larger along the way, the last clam alone accounts for around 40% of my CA/Alk depletion. My clams together account for well over 50% of total depletion. As far as my SPS colonies, one is volleyball sized, 6 are softball+, about a dozen 3", and then another dozen or so frag sized.
Moral of the study......if you want clams and start approaching the 10" and up range be prepared to hit your CA levels ALOT harder than you might think. Once big boy started growing, I saw my CA levels drop in excess of 50 ppm in one week while I was determining dosing.
I maintain CA in the 425-450 range and pretty much dose 1:1 Alk and CA using BRS 2-Part bulk. I do weekly 10% PWC's using Salinity.
My original dosing was right around 100 ml/day with no clams but several large SPS colonies and many smaller/mini colonies.
Clam #1 is about a 5-6" Viatnamese Teardrop Maxima. Dosing requirements only went up to about 110 ml per day of 2-Part.
Clam #2 is about a 7-8" Derasa. Dosing requirements up to about 140 ml per day.
Clam #3 is the killer. Squamosa with probably close to a 12" shell and 16" open. At first my requirements only went up about 40 ml but now I dose 225 ml per day since he has gotten acclimated and growing well. He's grown a solid 1/2" if not more in a couple months:bigeyes:
While none of this is greatly scientific and obviously my other clams and SPS colonies have been getting much larger along the way, the last clam alone accounts for around 40% of my CA/Alk depletion. My clams together account for well over 50% of total depletion. As far as my SPS colonies, one is volleyball sized, 6 are softball+, about a dozen 3", and then another dozen or so frag sized.
Moral of the study......if you want clams and start approaching the 10" and up range be prepared to hit your CA levels ALOT harder than you might think. Once big boy started growing, I saw my CA levels drop in excess of 50 ppm in one week while I was determining dosing.
