Stupid Question

RyanG

RyanG

Reef enthusiast
When you are doing your water changes and you have coral high on the rock stack what do you do not to kill the coral? With my 40 gallon a week changes this is posing a problem. I can only get about 15 gallons out of the display and 15 or so out of the sump without sucking out the fuge exposing heaters or corals. Is there anyway to prevent the death or do I just need to move the coral in question. I know I know stupid questions deserve stupid answers but cut me a lil slack.
 
your corals will be fine out of water for a certain amount of time, if you already have your water mixed and it is ready to go in as soon as your done taking water out youll be perfectly fine. if its your acros that are up high you dont need to worry since acros can be out of water with no harm for a long period of time. i had an acro get shipped to me and it was out of water in the bag the whole time because the styrofoam they shipped if in flipped and that coral was fine
 
I would move it down now if it's a frag that's stick out already...when it grows almost the whole colony would be exposed. It won't hurt the coral being exposed to air for a short period of time, but they will slime up heavy and that slime will blow all over the tank when they get covered up again.

I'm assuming you are talking about SPS. I would be very careful if they are LPS. If the water drops when they are inflated, it can damage their tissue.
 
Last edited:
No question is a stupid question. All my corals are low enough that when I do a water change they stay wet. But if I do a major water change I have a few that will be out of water for a little while. I try to get the new water in as fast as possible so they're not out of water to long.
 
My top corals are always exposed during water changes, but usually not longer than 10 or 15 minutes. For short periods of time, it's okay.
 
This maybe another reason to rescape your tank. A colony is going to do better than a frag out of the water. In low tide they are out of the water for hours.
What about empty your sump as much as you can, change that water. Turn the pumps back on until the sump until it fills the tank back up and fill the sump with water again. Does this make any sense
 
you have had some good answers already. When I work on my tank, all my SPS corals are exposed to the air, including my tort, sometimes for as long as an hour. They never seem to care much

-Doc
 
If you are worried about exposing your heaters, just turn them off or unplug them for the time you are draining your water (this is what I do) and then once the sump is refilled, turn them back on. When I do water changes, I use my return pump to pump most of the water out of my sump, replace it with new saltwater, and then turn my return pump back on to the DT. I am new to this so this may or may not be the best way to do it, but it has worked for me so far. And this does not affect the DT(no change in water level).
 
In nature, corals do get exposed at very low tides for short periods. Use your baster to keep them wet! I do that with my coralline. Coralline will die if it even starts to get dry.
 
I've got several corals are out of the water when I do a water change.It dont hurt them,and is actually natural for some to be out of the water during low tide.
Like was already mentioned,they just slime up.Heavy slimers are the ones I put on top of my rock pile.
 
The only thing that gets exposed is my hydnophora its has never been out...yet. That side of the tank is going to get rescaped probably friday so it wont be too much of a problem for the short term. I use a maxi-jet to suck out the sump and I try to leave the fuge alone.
 
RyanG said:
When you are doing your water changes and you have coral high on the rock stack what do you do not to kill the coral? With my 40 gallon a week changes this is posing a problem. I can only get about 15 gallons out of the display and 15 or so out of the sump without sucking out the fuge exposing heaters or corals. Is there anyway to prevent the death or do I just need to move the coral in question. I know I know stupid questions deserve stupid answers but cut me a lil slack.
Click to expand...
YOU ARE RIGHT PIGGY NO SUCH THING AS A STUPID QUESTION. Ryan, what is your total water volumn? that looks like a huge water change amount. your total volumn would need to be around 400 gal if you are doing a 10% exchange at that rate,200 gal if it is a 20% exchange. the input you received about corals is good, only concern might be if they are large polyp and slime produced when out of water. (how do you afford the large water exchanges?) is there a specific reason you do such large exchanges.
 
My total water volume is about 225gal. Its about 17% +/- I am getting in the proper habits to keep premium water quality so that I can have an SPS dominated reef. I also want to as much nuisance algae down as I can. Just striving to keep great water quality.
 
Keep it up Ryan. You won't even have to dose 2 part for along time if you keep up with that sized water change. Once the sps really start to take off is when you will notice you can't keep your numbers up.
 

Similar threads

L
New Member
Replies
0
Views
1K
lkt1954
L
Mike
We're Back!
Replies
0
Views
644
Mike
Mike
M
Novice needing advice!!
Replies
0
Views
1K
montgrl99
M
R
Need Help lowering nitrate levels
Replies
3
Views
3K
Rmckoy
Rmckoy
mark r ramsey
WARNING!!!
Replies
2
Views
2K
SHARKBAIT_BIOCUBE32
SHARKBAIT_BIOCUBE32
Back
Top