Large water change, exposed coral

gdwats2

gdwats2

Member
I'm about to do a 50% water change and am afraid some soft corals are going to have to be exposed to air for a little while. A group of mushroom anemonies which have attached to the back wall will be above water level during change?
Should I remove all coral that is going to be exposed? Or can they stand to be exposed to air for a while? I've never changed this much water before.
Thanks,
Greg
 
fidojoe

fidojoe

Fish Addict
How long are we talkin' here? If its just a few minutes, like 15 or less, they otta be just fine, but thats the longest I've ever left a mushroom out of water. The other thing is that you can splash them with water every once in a while. Once the tank is filled back up keep an eye on them, and know that they will be stressed and not open fully for a few days.
 
clownmorph

clownmorph

Member
In the wild a lot of corals including zoanthids, mushrooms and sps are in the low tide zone and are exposed to barely any water for hours. A lot of people do not realize this and get scared when there is no water for their corals. Your softies will be fine but like fidojoe said you can splash water on them.
 
Witfull

Witfull

Well-Known Member
ive had them left out for a few hrs,,,,accidental wholesale errors,,,but they all made it. they are tough critters!
 
ScottT1980

ScottT1980

Well-Known Member
Reminds me of Brian_e's experiments when he would leave SPS outside for X amount of hours, just to see how long they would survive...

You would be suprised at how resiliant many of our corals are, and I think as long as you are realatively quick about it, things will be just fine...

Take er easy
Scott T.
 
Brucey

Brucey

Well-Known Member
OK, I do a 30% water change every month. I have LPS and SPS within 6" of the surface water and they ALWAYS get exposed. Usually for no more than 20 mins. Just make sure you turn off ALL your lights. You don't want them getting burnt. They will shed a huge amount of mucus once resubmerged so make sure your running your skimmer wet and some car bon if you have it.

HTH
Brucey
 
C

cheeks69

Wannabe Guru
RS STAFF
At MACNA I saw some pics of coral farms that would leave their SPS corals out of the water and exposed to the sun for hours.
 
mattie

mattie

RS Sponsor
do the water change but with 50% be sure its heated water and very close the proper salinty and of course well mixed.
but for exposing the corals to air for 20min do not worry i do it all the time everytime i mount a frag i drain my tank about 75% for however long it takes me to do what i want.
xenia, ricorida, zoo's ,shrooms, and polyps have all been uneffected by being exposed to the air for long amounts of time and have always opened up with 30 min of filling the tank back up
recently all my sps were exposed for 2+ hr while i did my rock work in my new tank
2 hrs did make everything slime like crazy but in a few hours all the polyps were open
 
Woodstock

Woodstock

The Wand Geek was here. ;)
RS STAFF
I routinely expose xenia, GSP, and encrusting gorgonians (briarium) to air with every water change for 15-20 min. They don't seem to mind at all :)
 
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