Water changes

[Acronuts1]

Hello all,

When doing a water change in order to make a 25% change I need to drain to the point where sme of my sps's are actually out of the water.
I work fast enough that it takes about 10 to 12 mins for the new water to completely engulf the sps's and fil the tank once again.
I dont notice too much slim but do see some. The sps's usually recover again within

1. Is this causing stress to the animals?
2. Are there any other ways of changing water so that the animals are never out of the water?

As always your comments are greatly appreciated.
Juan

 

[Anonymous]

I'd just splash them with a little bit of tank water as you go. That's what I've always done and never had any issues.

Some SPS corals are exposed at times in nature (such as low tide). So they are somewhat designed for it.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

No worries, they're adapted for this.
The corals below are exposed for a lot longer than 12 minutes.

 

[Ben1]

This happens to me as well, and isnt an issue for a few minutes. The slime protects them a bit. I did take a rock out of the tank for less then 15 minutes before and ended up with some tissue necrosis and bleaching on certain pieces. I think certain SPS are more built for it them others, I do like Louey and splash them a if its taking me awhile to pump the new water in.

 

[Anonymous]

I've had coral exposed during routine water changes without any issues, but I do leave the lights off so the aren't dry and baked

 

[livingstone]

...The corals below are exposed for a lot longer than 12 minutes...

Wow! What a beautiful view of Puget Sound!

:lol:

 

[leftovers]

I've had coral exposed during routine water changes without any issues, but I do leave the lights off so the aren't dry and baked

TURNING OFF LIGHTS IS A MUST in my experience, keeping them moist is key, many corals collected can survive just fine with limited air exposure but simple splashing is very helpful, try not to dry any deep water SPS to. Also reduces the uv they are exposed to and thats a real killer.

 

[Anonymous]

If you are going to keep them out of water for over a 1/2 hour just hang wet paper towels over them to keep them damp.

 

[Anonymous]

The LFS I used to buy SPS from in Tokyo always used to get them delivered wrapped in wet newspaper. Used to surprise me, but then, I guess sometimes the low-tech methods work.

 

[Anonymous]

Just look at the critters that survive on your Live Rock. My LFS gets his wrapped in wet newspaper, not heat/cold packs, that are delivered from the South Pacific or California(if they stop there first).

 

[Anonymous]

Water change? What's that?

...adding a little emphasis to the lights off comment...it's a good idea. Even though many of your corals can absolutely survive being air baked for short spans of time, they aren't exactly getting it very often in your tank so they're not likely to be as tolerant to the situation as they might otherwise be. I never worry about it too much though. I do turn off the halides but I keep the actinics on so I can still see well. I also turn off my canopy fans to minimize evaporative cooling on the tissues. Having everything laid out before hand can significantly reduce the amount of exposure. I've gotten my water changes down to ~15 minutes for 30 gallons.

 

[Acronuts1]

Thank you all for you advice!