water changes without big sump?

[treesprite]

How do people deal with water changes without having a sump that has at least 25% of the system volume in it?

 

For my old 75, I had a sump in a 40B. I would just turn off pumps and do my water changes from there. I am not planning to have a big sump like that again, because it takes too much space.

 

Are people letting high up corals (usually SPS) go without water during water changes? I have done it with the small temporary tanks, and the corals always protest with the production of stringy slime which then has to be removed (at least I think it does... am I wrong?)

 

I'm kind of dreading water changes for a 120, but I think having the tank will be worth it. I just need to figure out the best way to do it.

[Matt LeBaron]

I sometimes remove the water for water changes from my DT rather than my sump and my acros that he exposed to air for 5-10 minutes never have any ill affects. They do generate the slim but I just let my power heads eventually blow it all off and nothing is worse for wear from it.

[AlanM]

It depends on how often you want to do it, but I decided a while ago to do small changes nearly every day so I don't have to turn anything off. I can drain 3 gallons from my 100 total volume without the return pump pulling air.  I do that every couple of days, and it ends up being almost like a continuous water change of a gallon per day.  It's true that I'm removing some small volume of "fresh" water, but the mixing is good enough that it's a very small amount.  

[treesprite]

If I was going to do little water changes all the time, I would need to put a split with a valve on my plumbinb to drain, and put my new salt water in small jugs so it would be easy to grab them and dump in water.

[sam75]

Are people letting high up corals (usually SPS) go without water during water changes?

 

^^ this.

 

The bigger problem is the is forgetting to turn of the fan pumps and getting blasted by water. The corals really don't seem to mind (at least in my experience).

[Origami]

Are people letting high up corals (usually SPS) go without water during water changes?

 

^^ this.

 

The bigger problem is the is forgetting to turn of the fan pumps and getting blasted by water. The corals really don't seem to mind (at least in my experience).

+1

 

This is what I used to do on my 90 years ago.

 

Sent from my phone

[treesprite]

So I guess I should not worry about it, as long as I don't have an emergency in the middle of doing the water change.

[zygote2k]

sps corals are exposed to air for several hours at a time at low tide. LPS corals need to be manually deflated before exposing them to air in order to avoid tearing of their tissues.

Xenia is absolutely foul when you expose it to air. Stinks worse than acropora.

[treesprite]

 LPS corals need to be manually deflated before exposing them to air in order to avoid tearing of their tissues.

 

 

First time I've heard/read someone mentioning this. It makes sense, given observations of my candy cane especially, which tends to get big, juicy looking polyps. I generally do not have LPS at the top of the rockwork, but in the little tanks crammed with rock, they are up high.

[Origami]

First time I've heard/read someone mentioning this. It makes sense, given observations of my candy cane especially, which tends to get big, juicy looking polyps. I generally do not have LPS at the top of the rockwork, but in the little tanks crammed with rock, they are up high.

It's to keep their flesh from tearing due to their water-filled weight. Sometimes flow from something like a maxijet will get them to withdraw. Once their tissue has retracted some, they'll be lighter and will have a better chance of getting through the time out-of-water without tearing.

[sen5241b]

When I have done a 50% change out, I've continuously sprayed water on corals so they are dripping wet at all times. It seems to help

[AlanM]

Yeah, with my frogspawn I just poked at the heads and it would retract if I wanted to pull it out.