Corals out of water during water change?

[grwoolf]

I see a lot of tanks with Corals all the way up near the waterline. I like this look and want to place some of my rockwork and corals near the surface, but I'm worried about them being dry when I do water changes. I am pretty quick, but the Corals at the top might be dry for 5-10 minutes between emptying and refilling. I have done this with zoos without a problem, but what about my other corals? I have a Frogspawn, Hammer, mushrooms, galaxia, and Xenia and may be adding some SPS at some point.

[BurntOutReefer]

IMO...no problem out of water 15~20 mins

[Blown 346]

This is what I do. I will take 5 gallons of water out and put it in a bucket, use that bucket for the corals while you do your waterchange. I myself dont leave corals out of water for more than 3 or 4 minutes.

[alexb518]

i just did that about an hour ago. no problems.

[rsw686]

Turn the tank lighting off when you do this or you might have problems.

[adnup]

They should be fine.

BUT

I make sure I have a big enough sump to hold as much water as I'm changing. This way my tank(and power heads) are not effected by the water change at all. Ball valves on drain and returns keep it at the level I want. With your tank you probably change 10 gals at a time so a 20 or 30 gal sump would help.

JMO

[Aquarist007]

You need to research your corals a little--find out what corals are near the surface on the reef--some are exposed to the hot sun for hours due to rising and lowering of the tides.

[reefshadow]

SPS generally fine, but I would not let frogspawn, hammers, or xenia (you have those listed) be out of the water. The reason? They collaps without water and it can cause tissue damage that will kill the coral.

[Frick-n-Frags]

also, pocillapora doesn't last as long as the slimier ones (learned that the hard way)

corals don't like it. most can take it, but it wastes resources and stresses them. on the rare occasion I have to low-tide a tank, i'm in there splashing water on everything INCLUDING THE CORALLINE which can easily be killed in 10 minutes of open air.

Overall, I do not like it and verge on panic-mode the whole time the tide is out. same with leaving an acro on the counter for 10 minutes while fragging WHY? when you could just as easily put it in a bowl of water and save it some trauma.

[kipher]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9865820#post9865820 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefshadow
SPS generally fine, but I would not let frogspawn, hammers, or xenia (you have those listed) be out of the water. The reason? They collaps without water and it can cause tissue damage that will kill the coral.

I agree here. You don't want frogspawn type corals (most types of LPS) out of the water with their polyps extended. The polyps will be full of water and will bend over and tear on the edge of their skeleton, if they are not free to "float" in the current. You could take a turkey baster and lightly blast small jets of water at the polyps until the are irritated enough to retract. Thats what i've read to do when you want to frag an LPS.