Exposure of SPS to air

[westreef]

During our weekly or biweekly water change, some of our sensitive SPS, either partially or fully, are exposed to the air. How long can they be exposed to the air with minimal impact to their health?

 

[curlykid]

Mine are exposed for less than 30 minutes. in the wild they are out of water for sometimes hours.

 

[RynosReef]

There's an article or post that randy holmes farley did a while ago on water changes that might be of interest if you don't mind searching for it. Basically the article said changing 1 gallon daily for 10 days has very little difference than changing 10 gallons once every 10 days. My point is that its always best not to expose the.corals if possible. So for instance in my tank the most I can change without exposing corals is 10 gallons. But I like to do 15 gallon changes per week. So I take out 10 first. Put 10 in and then take out 5 and put in 5 for a total of 15 gallons with no corals exposed. The amount of new water I might take out in that last 5 gallons is inconsequential really on the effectiveness of the water change.

 

[curlykid]

It happens in nature to most shallow-water species, and the effect is so minimal it's not worth mentioning.

 

[evsalty]

SPS can handle air exposure quite well. They will slime over (some more then others) and release the slime once back under water. When I buy new SPS corals I leave them out of the water for a bit and then mount them where I want to without any aclimation (unless the source water sg is way off of mine). I know others that do the same as well as LFS' that practice this.

 

[JSeymour]

It's not really too big of a deal. Although to optimize growth and color, stability is key and being exposed to air is definitely stressing the coral. My Red Planet Acro is right near the surface and is exposed every week for about 10-20 minutes depending on the situation. It polyps out within minutes of being resubmerged. Deepwater acros may be affected differently, as they would never be exposed in the wild.

 

[westreef]

Thanks everybody for the insight and experience. I just thought there must be a limit for them otherwise they will just get dried up.
So looks like during water changes, 30 min or so is no big deal. :beer:

 

[Reef Bass]

Just because they might be able to survive, doesn't mean they like it or it's good for them. I personally wouldn't expose my sps to air unnecessarily, and certainly never for 30 minutes.

 

[RynosReef]

I agree. Acros can be exposed to air for a little while without killing them. That doesn't mean its good for their health. I would avoid exposing acros to air. Especially during something as mundane as weekly water changes. Why stress your expensive corals each week. Especially when the water change will be just as effective even if you have to do a double change of some water to keep from exposing them

 

[Ostentum]

I had a couple of bags bust in shipping, where a tort and a jedi mind tricks monti was exposed to air. The package was shipped at 530 and and i didnt receive it until 330 the next evening, since FedEx said they threw away the box since it was destroyed, whole nother story. Anyways out of the 8 corals in my shipment the only two that survived were the two that were out of water. Like previously stated the corals slime over when exposed to air. The slime actually assists with the releasing of toxins within the corals. There are a few former tanks of the month that use penductors and eductors to inject air into there system every x mins for x mins in order to actually assist in this toxin release.

 

[stevejrnc]

I would not worry about acros being out of the water
during a routine water change
happens in tanks all over the world and in nature
during low tide

the things to worry about is burning them dry by leaving
the lights on will there exposed or pouring fresh unproperly
mixed salt water over them

 

[Sullyman]

We've had a high number of power outages this year, the worst lasted 9 hours. I didn't have a generator then and after the water drained I had many, many sps colonies that were completely out in the air others were just partialy covered. They all looked just fine after the power came back on, lots of slime but the corals were fine. I've found that digis and birdsnest don't fare as well and have die off. Like Steve said if you're exposing them for a water change make sure the new water isn't going to burn/stress them out.
The acro smell was pretty strong, I love the smell of acros in the morning, but there weren't any problems.

 

[zaheda]

I lost a few frags when changing the rockwork a month back. They were just over 30 minutes out of the tank and when put back were heavily stessed out. I must have lost half of those sps. I will not do this again, rather have another tank to house them for a while.

 

[barjam]

I have found that as long as they don't get cold (below 68 or so) being in the air is no issue for sps.

 

[westreef]

Thanks for posting all your unique experience. Very interesting.

 

[Jeff000]

We've had a high number of power outages this year, the worst lasted 9 hours. I didn't have a generator then and after the water drained I had many, many sps colonies that were completely out in the air others were just partialy covered. They all looked just fine after the power came back on, lots of slime but the corals were fine. I've found that digis and birdsnest don't fare as well and have die off. Like Steve said if you're exposing them for a water change make sure the new water isn't going to burn/stress them out.
The acro smell was pretty strong, I love the smell of acros in the morning, but there weren't any problems.

I have to wonder why your system would drain so much with power out.

And I have to wonder why peoples DT water level changes at all, I change the water out from my sump.

 

[Sullyman]

I have 5 return lines and 3 of the lines are low in the tank and if I don't get the valves closed it drains down about 8" in the DT. Gravity and lack of electricity with returns approx 6-7 inches from the bottom of the tank.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Remember when Calfo was trying to get everyone to ship corals without water?

 

[sjfishguy]

http://www.photographersdirect.com/buyers/stockphoto.asp?imageid=1039433

 

[alcko]

wow cool picture