Whats this?

[SaltwaterTeen]

What is a planktonic reactor? I seen it at reefermadness.us Does it make make phytoplankton or something? Is it hard to do?? How do you make it?

 

[NaH2O]

SWT - I'm not exactly how to culture phytoplankton, but I know there are a lot hobbyists that do it. If you are interested in culturing it yourself, I think there is a thread on the board about it. The question you need to ask yourself before you start to dose phyto is what are you trying to feed with it?

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

Clam, corals, possibly fish.

 

[CarlaW]

How big is the clam?

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

he's huge, its a gigas

 

[CarlaW]

You shouldn't really need to feed this critter, if he's growing and happy, why add nutrients to your tank that aren't really gonna get used up?

 

[DonW]

he's huge, its a gigas

What is "huge"?

Don

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

umm... is about 5" from one end to the other, about 3 in across.

 

[DonW]

Thats just a baby. Yours may benefit with phyto, at least until you get your light upgraded.

Don

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

its not a baby, its like 10-20lbs!

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

Its grown a new calcium line also, heres a pic

 

[CarlaW]

Daniel Knop has a great book on the care of giant clams, I would suggest that you do a little reading on these. Pardon me if I sound cynical, but I have a couple of clams that size, and they don't weigh 10 lbs. let alone 20.
He might benefit from the phyto, but like I asked before, why do you want to add a bunch of nutrients to your system? I am only trying to be helpful here. He is growing at a good pace, it looks like already, so what you are doing now seems to be helping. What type of lites do you have?

 

[DonW]

Its grown a new calcium line also, heres a pic

I didnt say it wasnt growing. It IS a young Gigas if its ONLY 5". Do some research. Youll find it will get truely huge when cared for properly. If you take good care of him, youll definately need to get a much larger aquarium to house him.

Don

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

Charlie, 440watss VHO in a 55gal

 

[Angelscrx]

SWT that is a baby gigas. I saw one at an aquarium that was like 15 inches and they have been know to get larger than that in the wild. I would upgrade the lights first because it sounds like you are doing a good job of keeping it feed with your current set up.

 

[CarlaW]

Yeah SWT, you are going to want to throw at least one MH over your tank. He's gonna want some big lite pretty soon, then watch him grow, If your keep doin what you are doin.

 

[Boomer]

What is a planktonic reactor?

They are used to culture/grow plankton in. There are a number of different configurations. Here are a couple off pics to give you an idea.

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

Charlie, it will be a while til I get some metal hallides

 

[big t]

That cracked me up dude! 10 to 20 pounds!!! Your gigas is a good sized clam none the less, and I am happy for you that it is growing, thats great!!! Be careful not to feed too much phyto, it is almost pure phosphates and will cause major hair and other algea to grow like wild fire.

 

[SaltwaterTeen]

ok, ill keep that in mind