Water Change Question

[bikerfish]

I've been changing 30 gallons of my 120g total volume every couple of weeks. The problem is, I can't drain 30g from the tank all at once, or half the corals get a breath of fresh air.

So I end up doing three sets of 10g, and then filling the tank back up, then taking out 10 more.

Is that the best way to do it? I suppose I could just run it into the sump at the same time that I siphon it out from the tank, but it seems like I'd be sucking out a lot of the "new" water.

Is this a silly concern? Does it matter? Is there a "best practice" to, say, siphon out from the bottom while it runs back in at the top? :?

 

[Serk]

Most corals can handle an hour or more out of water... When I do my water changes, a lot of my corals get to sunbathe for a while and have shown no problem from doing so...

 

[eman]

What about LPS and anemones? I have them placed low in the tank so they don't get exposed to their own weight and tare. Is this something that I should not worry about? I would like to move a few of them to higher spots. Just jumping in

 

[Guest]

i would do 15 gallon changes weekly. I went from one large monthly change to smaller weekly changes and I have seen a big difference in coral extension and growth. If you take a look at some of the aquariums at Frank's Tanks and user mickey43 they do weekly changes with some amazing results in my opinion

 

[Serk]

Good point... I'd be a lot more wary of exposing LPS to air, since they can kinda droop and could hurt the flesh on their sharp skeletons...

 

[Wes]

i ran in to this problem when i was doing large changes less often too and had to be weary of some creatures up high, but did so for many months with no troubles untili started doing weekly smaller changes and not only does the tank look and test better, it kept really anything from gettin exposed to air.

 

[bikerfish]

How about exposing Leathers to the air? The highest thing in the tank is actually a multi-branched finger leather that managed to stick itself to a rock too big to relocate. It is only about 1/4" below the surface at the tips.

I don't think it would droop much, but it would definitely get a lot of air.

 

[Wes]

actually, that is the same situation for me, i have a two head leather coral at the top of my water column, closeest thing to the air, he touches the air even wih my small water changes, only thing that touches in fact, and i have had him since day 1 with no problems.

 

[Allen Michelle]

do you run a sump?

I just stop the water from flowing into the sump (plug up the over flow)
and then switch out all the sump water. That takes care of my water changes weekly/biweekly

 

[fish2morow]

The only corals that need not be out of water are LPS and most definately sponges. Most other corals can handle air exposure and most can handle it for quite a while longer than it takes to do a water change, sps included. Halide lighting should be turned off so not to burn corals.
Smaller more frequent water changes are much better if you have the time. Also Michelle's idea works great too, turn off return pump and take old water from sump so the water level in tank is not affected.

 

[SumpDiver]

Brain makes a good point. I’m not sure about LPSs, but I think hard corals can take quite a bit of exposure. In the ocean corals are exposed all the time and don’t seen to suffer from it. Like on shallow reefs that are exposed at low tide and other marine life just tossing in between the crests and troughs of the sea's natural wave action. I'm not sure if this applies to aquaria, though; the corals in our tanks are probably much more fragile. Probably the less exposed to air the better. But it is interesting how the tips of all the huge Stag and Elkhorn around Key Largo literally bakes in the sun for hours every day, but seems just fine when the tide comes back in. I've often wondered how this is possible.

 

[bikerfish]

@na1paj wrote:

I thought about doing that. Just shut off the return pump and drain the sump. Problem is, it's hard to siphon from the floor level. I guess I could throw a small powerhead in there to pump it out.

I usually try to siphon any collected ditritus out of the tank along with the water being changed though, which would mean I have to remove water from the tank itself. (Throwback from freshwater days I guess.)

 

[bimmerzs]

@fish2morow wrote:

Some of the reasons that I'm getting equipment together for a continuous water change system, thought about the litermeter III but can't find one in my price range. I bought 3 of the medical dosers off of e-bay which should allow the continuous wc as well as the 3rd unit keeping up with top-off...got all 3 at a fraction of the litermeter III.

Cheers!

 

[Ashlar]

At times like this, I really appreciate having the remote refugium. All I have to do is turn off the pump to the refugium, drain 40g from the 55g tank (only thing out of water might be some snails or the urchin) refill it, and plug in the pump. The main tank never even notices that something happenned.

 

[kwl1763]

@Ashlar wrote:

Ditto on the remote sump. I change 90G (15% of total water) and turn nothing off! Just turn the auto topoff off and then drain the sump to a couple inches above the pump input then fill back up!

In the past I would always drain from the main tank while pumping into the sump with everything on. Works like a champ with no stress.