starter clam

okay well im a noob at reef, noob at clams. Im looking into the cheapest "cleaner clam" I was wondering for these guys do i still need ridiculosly good lighting with good water? I have stock biocube light running at the moment

 

I would say T. Derasa and that depends on your lighting. You never said what your wattage is. T. Derasa do grow large and need calcium to continue to grow.

 

Just a suggestion here, and I don't mean to rain on the parade. But I notice that you are fairly new to the reef hobby, and that your tank is a 29 gallon. My suggestion with clams is that you gain a bit of experience with the easier corals first. Clams demand fairly high water quality (they do feed off minute nitrate levels, but they require fairly stable water quality nonetheless), along with calcium supplementation. So I don't suggest starting with a clam just yet.

Also, you will be hard pressed to fit one of the tridacnid clams (called "giant clams" in a 20g biocube). The only one that remains small enough that I know of is T. crocea (about 6-8 inches), but this one requires the most light.

The ones that require the least light are T. derasa and T. squamosa, but these tend to grow too large for your tank.

So bottom line, wait a while, and consider either upgrading your lights or tank size IMO.

 

alright thanks. My wattage are 36 wat by the way

 

36w in a 29 gallon is a little over 1w per gallon. I have heard the number needs to be closer to four watts/gallon for any kind of coral.

It is a biocube right? So it has 36 watts of compact fluorescents. T. Crocea which are the smallest of the giant clams require the most intense lights (metal halides) which you won't get from compact fluorescents.

I believe I have heard the cleaner clams do not require light at all, but feed entirely on filter feeding. They really suck down the nitrates, but when they die they also release a lot of nitrates.

 

Ark clams are one idea to try.