How do you do water changes......

[mattsilvester]

...... without letting your sps high and dry?

So, my tank is 24" deep. The highest rock is about 6-8" below the water surface - with a good amout of real estate about 8-10".

Take an sps coral standing say 3-4" tall (initially). That presumably is going to grow up into the water column until it approaches the surface.

So, now lets say I do a 20% water change. That is going to deplete the water level by say 4" - thus exposing the coral.

Sorry for being so clueless - I'm just wondering so I can better plan my rockwaork and coral placement.

Cheers.

[gonpostal]

You can drain the water out of your sump first, then you might not have to drain much if any out of your DT.

[dixiedog]

The coral won't mind being exposed for a few minutes while you do the WC.

[mattsilvester]

gonpostal - changing the sump volume would be a pretty small water change in my case :(

dixiedog - that's good to hear. I would assume its best to switch the lights off, so they don't bake for the 5 minutes in question?

[MarkL]

That may be a preference if you want to turn off the lights or not (I would probably consider take the precaution if my coral were exposed to halides.) Just remember low tides in the wild happen during the day and night and coral in low tide areas survive the sun's heat.

[t4zalews]

I leave my halides on when doing a water change, the SPS on top get exposed to air and the halides for a couple minutes, just fill back up with water and all good to go. I've been turning off my halides recently, just because i've noticed some splashing pumping new water into tank and I dont want it to hit a hot bulb. Even at 16", its amazing how water can still hit the bulb.

[tinkerman]

I use one of these at one end of sump and pour fresh saltwater in at other end of sump. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3728+23755&pcatid=23755

[dixiedog]

I would assume its best to switch the lights off, so they don't bake for the 5 minutes in question?


That's how I'd do it. I'm a T5 guy, but if I had halides I'd turn em off just because it would cause ME less stress that way. :)

[mushroom head]

I'm a T5 and halide guy..i wanted to putty over a couple of encrusting caps too kill them.I did shut the halides off,took about 25 minutes by the time they had water covering them again.No problems,just lots of slime,everything is doing great.

[REEF SMAC]

I've got a lot of acros that have grown all the way to the waters surface. They are 8" below 400MHs. They are all an 1.5" out of the water when my return pump is swiched off everyday during my feeding mode that's programed into my controller. They bake there the whole 8 minutes out of the water and it doesn't seem to effect them at all.

Splash a little water on them if your worried about them being out of the water too long. Just keep them wet. They'll be fine.

[MrSandman]

I've got a lot of acros that have grown all the way to the waters surface. They are 8" below 400MHs. They are all an 1.5" out of the water when my return pump is swiched off everyday during my feeding mode that's programed into my controller. They bake there the whole 8 minutes out of the water and it doesn't seem to effect them at all.

Splash a little water on them if your worried about them being out of the water too long. Just keep them wet. They'll be fine.

Ditto to that except mine are under T5's for about 30 minutes every day when in feed mode. When i do a water change they are easily exposed for over an hour sometimes with no problems at all. As mentioned earlier, in the wild these corals are exposed for over an hour under direct sunlight so i wouldn't worry too much about it.

[MammothReefer]

My tank is only 18" tall so a good portion of my tank is out of water during water changes. Never causes any need for alarm.

[lolgranny]

I do a cannonball in the tank and refill whatever came out with new sparkling saltwater.

;)

Im with these guys, it doesn't matter if the sps are out of the water for a few min. Most of mine are and I never see any damage. Just some slime for a few after the change and then back to normal. I make sure temp is fairly close along with matching alk/ca/mag

[allsps40]

When I do a larger water change a few of my sps get exposed to air and my MH lights for a little while. After filling back out and about a hour they look just fine and have full PE. Never had an issue.