can clams be kept under leds?

My understanding is that with enough LED lighting, you can provide enough light for about anything in your tank.

 

That's true to some extent while a clam is first getting used to your tank, but once it's acclimated they will extend to the point which they are most comfortable at. The muscles in clams are used to pull them closed. They are spring loaded to be open, so they will adjust the amount of zooxanthellae in their mantle to get enough food at that sprung open point.

As far as the original question, you would have to be more specific. It's possible to keep clams under any type of reef lighting there is given the right conditions. You can certainly keep one under LEDs given the right conditions. There are also five major types of clams in the hobby and all have different conditions they need, so you would have to decide on that too.

 

I knew this would come up LOL not in a bad way though ;D

it will go in a 75 gallon and I have been looking up the diffrent types but still havent really narrowed one down to the "easy" one to keep. some advise from my fellow 3reefers is welcomed and much appreciated though ;D

 

The easiest, and ugliest IMO, is the derasa. The best compromise between looks and ease of care is a squamosa.

 

i will definatly look into this species and try to find one that looks good ;D lol

 

I'm certainly no clam expert, I do know however, clams differs from coral, in that you really can't give them too much light. They can tolerate anything you can throw at them really. Also, from what I understand, they tend to prefer more natural daylight, around 6500K or so, which if natural is pretty wide spectrum light. So, leds, having a bit of a peaked spectrum may not be quite as ideal.

However, that dosn't mean you can't keep them under leds, many people do and are successful doing so. Some get pretty big, and suck up ca and alk in the proccess so, honestly, if they grow a bit slower, that may not be undesirable. I would imagine though, it isn't much different than keeping them under say a 20000K MH, which people also do all the time... A 6500K MH is probably best for clams growth though, but obviously is going to be pretty ugly too.

 

lol six in one hand and a half dozen in the other huh ;D