Reef Builders - The Source for Reef Keeping Information

Reef Ramblings: Clamming Around
Part II: Spawning Tridacnids
Adam Blundell M.S.

Introduction
In the previous article I covered the many reasons why hobbyists would be interested in keeping Tridacnid clams.To sum up that article, Tridacnids are a perfect animal for captive care. For the more advanced hobbyists, or at least the more adventurous hobbyists, Tridacnid clams are potentially wonderful animals to aquaculture, experiment, and study.

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We had a ink-a-ling that the EcoCube from Drs. Foster and smith was a Current Solana and Eric over at glass box design confirmed it for us. I was thinking about that, since DFS is getting an OEM from Current should mean that DFS can sell at a much cheaper price, since Current doesn’t have to worry about brand dillusion.  Comparing these two models is easy, as they are the same, so we configured one at MarineDepot and found out that for the aquarium, stand and light they charge $799, which includes free shipping, not bad. We configured one on DFS and found their price to be $767.97 includes shipping charges of $17.99.

Drs Foster smith: $749.98 +$17.9= $767.97
Marine Depot $799.99+$0.00=$799.99

What does an OEM get you? A whooping savings of $31.03. We are not impressed with the Drs, with all their inventory thats the best discount they could get for their customers? True, Marine depot is giving away free shipping (nice!) which does offset the price, however being an OEM their should be at least $100 off the sticker. Anyone else think that the Drs should ask Current to drop their price, or order more container loads?

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Drs. Foster and Smith, the large mail order company out of Wisconsin has released the 25 gallon EcoCube aquarium, sure to please your eyes. We would wager to say this is an OEM from another aquarium manufactuer. Besides offering the usual built in filter, it does come with a protein skimmer (venturi), auto top off system (nice!) and you do get the rimless tank. However, don’t jump the gun to fast, lights aren’t included and that will set you back a cool $130 just for the compact fluorescent pendant. Metal halides are of course extra at $270. For the price of $480 you get the aquarium minus lights, opt for the metal halide option and it will set you back a stiff $750. They won us over by the rimless design, we are all huge fans over here. Red Sea are you watching? Your Red Sea max has some stiff competition.

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Upon asking Euro Reef about their rumored Hang-on-the-back protein skimmer, we talked about how we were very confident that they would release a unit in the 2008 year. We are still sticking to that, but it is nice to know that Euro Reef has confirmed it with this comment: “We were working on one a while back, but we have shelved it in favor of a few other more important projects. We will pick it up again soon, don’t worry.” Needless to say, we aren’t worried but we are waiting patiently for a low cost protein skimmer to come gracing the backs of our rimless star fire glass.

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Well what do you know? Tunze decided to pop out a new reef salt. Reef Excel is based on the “lastest” international findings of what real ocean water is made out of. Who makes this stuff? Apparently  there is a salt manufacturer in Germany called Wiegandt that is making a custom blend for Tunze. Regardless, we still want to try it!

Click the read more link for specifics of the salt.

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Introduction

Giant Clams are amazing. Let me just start by saying that. The members of the family Tridacnidae are also known as the Tridacnids or as the Giant Clams. These animals are truly amazing. Within the phylum Mollusca there are about 115,000 species on Earth, with 30,000 of them contained in the Bivalvia class (Bivalves). Of those 30,000 bivalves a whopping 8 belong to the Family Tridacnidae. It is safe to say that in the grand scheme of things they are certainly oddities. That isn’t to say they are rare in numbers of individuals, just odd from an evolutionary standpoint.

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Before you rush out and buy Seachem’s new line of “things you must have for your reef”. Be warned. Most if not all of their products are just a re-hash of similiar products they already sell, with one or two things added that make them “must have”. Fancy labeling and “mac” stylized graphics abound on the Aqua-vitro. Along with fancy names called “alpha, eight.four” (what the heck?) This is Seachem’s premium line, which means you be paying a premium price for things you don’t need added to your water that you can’t already get cheaper elsewhere.

For example, they are offering a product called “fuel,” which is a carbon source and amino acid source, which includes some vitamins. Now, with vitamins you could add Selcon to your food feeding, finely minced garlic and vitamin C (lime juice) are great ways to do this. With Seachem’s line, you are enriching your tank water with all the vitamins, not the food. Sorry Seachem, we are not convinced that you need to enrich the tank water.

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H&S has jumped on the needle-wheel bandwagon, or should we say, new needle-wheel bandwagon. If you happen to have an external H&S unit then your in luck, this upgrade should be available starting April 15th at most H&S dealers. We are seeing so many needle wheel designs that most are starting to look very similar, or identical.

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We thought that Digital Aquatics, the guy’s that bring you the ReefKeeper 2 and the new Reefkeeper Elite were to start taking pre-orders in March. They have only 11 days to make good on their offer. Time is a tickin’ guys.

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If you haven’t looked at Bart’s 600 gallon display, then you should get a look at it.  He is a RB member and the whole system of course is 1300 gallons, and if that doesn’t make you sick with envy he has over a 1 ton chiller keeping his whole system nice and cool. Your going to want to read the thread. Be sure to bring a drool plate in front of your computer, your going to need it.

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