Mitchell

I'm using Tim's (Westside Aquarium's) premade saltwater.

After testing my water with my new API phosphate test kit it says I have .25 ppm of phosphate. Is this bad? Will my clam lower the phosphate levels? Will water changes lower it? Thanks

www.reefgeeks.com it was $95 shipped

I bought two ATI blue +, one ATI aquablue and one ATI purple +. Should I acclimate my livestock to the new light bulbs, or do I just run it as normal? I have a 216 watt Odyssea professional light fixture. I know they are not considered quality fixtures, but the ballast runs the bulbs at the proper wattage and it has a reflector made out of one sheet of metal, but it is bent around each bulb, it kinda looks like this: VVVV. I have seen good growth on my bird nest coral with the stock bulbs, so it can't be that bad. The top of my sand bed is 17 inches away from my light.

Before the lights turned on I tried burping it. No bubbles came out, but I did thorough job, so I am pretty sure there is no trapped air. His mantle looks back to normal, its not droopy like it was last night. He also hasn't pooped today, so that's good. Mandinga, I know I messed up and I feel really bad that I am put this amazing animal's life at stake. Hopefully it isn't doomed like you say it is, but if it starts to show any signs of stress I'll be checking it into the clam hotel haha. I'll make sure to keep the reflectors really clean, it has the stock bulbs in it right now, but I have new bulbs bulbs at the top of my christmas list. What are good brands?

I searched online and couldn't find anything about droopy mantles, just pinched mantles, but doesn't pinched mantles make it look tight not floppy. If it looks like it did this evening in the morning should I move my power head? Maybe it doesn't like the amount of flow its getting.

This hobby is going to make my hair turn grey at the ripe old age of 17. Do your clams ever have droopy mantles or do they always look like my first pictures?

I have seen it poop a few times today. This is not good?

What are signs that its not doing well?

I just noticed that the mantle is now drooping over the edge of the shell, is this good?

I am running a 216 watt t5 fixture over my 55 gallon. Hopefully the clam will be fine with t5, I hear they are the least light demanding of all the clams. Oh god did you say three feet, that's massive! Hopefully they only grow a couple inches a year. My calcium is pretty high at 500, I am not sure abut alk my test alk test kit hasn't come yet.

So my clam was delivered today. I thought it was dead because the clam's bag had leaked and part of the clam was out of water, but I did a sniff test and everything smelled fine, so floated the bag and put the clam in my tank. Even with my lights off the minute I put the clam in my tank it started to open up. I can't believe how fast it has adjusted. My cleaner shrimp didn't jump on it and eat it, so that's good, it does tickle my clam's mantel with its antenna when it walks by, but hopefully the clam will get used to that. If I move my hand over the clam it quickly shuts, so that's a good sign. I have never had a clam before and the only clams I have seen in stores are maximas, so I am not sure what a healthy derasa looks like, but it seems as happy as a clam (couldn't resist saying it ) I am going to be picking up some food for it tomorrow, whats the best brand of phyto? Here are some pictures:

My temperature fluctuates from 79.9 at night to 80.1 during the day. The temp drops to about 78 when I do a water change. He has a lot of great hiding spots. The other fish in the tank are two clownfish and a royal gramma, so I don't think anythings pick on him. Is selcon a good vitamin supplement? It says its great for filter feeding inverts, will my clam eat it?

The fifth ingredient in their pellets is garlic. I'm am picking up some selcon tomorrow to soak his nori in, hopefully that will also help him.

Well I hope I didn't cause it by taking a bunch of picture of him the day before he got ich. He was pretty spooked of me and I was working on getting a good picture for over an hour. No, I do not have a uv sterilizer. I read that uv sterilizers are not that helpful because most of the ich is not free swimming. It said most of the ich is attached to rock/sand where they wait for a fish to swim by, kinda like what lice do in the woods.

Is there any reason why the tang was fine for a week and is just now showing problems?

I have a cleaner shrimp and it does clean the tang.

Its a 55 gallon, the tang is only 2 1/2 inches, so it should have plenty of room until I set up my 180 gallon. The tank has been cycled for 3 and a half weeks.

I got a yellow tang a little over a week ago and he has been doing great, eating his New Life Spectrum Thera-A Pellets and nori like a champ and being very active. Today I noticed him scratching on my sand and rock and when I looked closely I saw a few white/clearish dots on his right fin. He is very fast and gets spooked when I stand close to the tank making him even more speedy, so I couldn't get a clear look. My tank conditions are all good: ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0, ph 8.1. I test my water daily because my tank is still pretty new and the conditions have not changed in the week I have had him. My bird nest coral, hairy mushroom, candy cane coral, torch coral, cleaner shrimp, royal gramma and clown pair are all doing great. Is my tang going to be ok? He will have to get over it himself because I don't have a QT. He is my favorite fish and would hate to lose him. Here is a picture I took of him yesterday:

Here is mine: