Drying out your SPS -- anyone else tried this!?

[CraigLampe]

I have found my SPS tend to perk up quite a bit when exposed to dry air for several seconds to minutes and then placed back in the water!! They will immediately secrete a mucus/slime which will eventually blow away in the current and they will be happier for it!!

This is a technique I learned from a fellow reef-keeper here in Lubbock, and apparently has something to do with killing off bacteria while the coral survives and after the bacteria have been decreased/eliminated the coral is that much happier!!

Just wondering if anyone else knows of this phenomenon!

Would be interesting to build a tank system which would be designed to have "tides" and completely expose its SPS for 5 minutes or so EVERY DAY... has anyone done this?!!?

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
Some paradox are hard to realize to be true immediately, like the relationship between exercise and health. However, irrating your corals and get it to generate tons of organics may not do the coral much goods since it is badly stressed already in a tank system.

Getting that crouch potato off the lazy-boy to jog is a good idea, but force a 80 years old man with a broken hip to mountain bike with you is not such a good idea.

 

[Anonymous]

Hadn't heard that before, interesting. I imagine different species would vary as far as how they would react; some are adapted to being exposed at low tide and some are not.

I encourage my corals to become "welded" to the rock structure as their bases encrust to it, so it wouldn't be practical for me to experiment with this.

A side note: I know you are talking about sps, but I had a colony of green star polyps out of the water for a couple minutes to give it a haircut recently. It was mad for a couple days and was slow to extend polyps in the morning, but was quickly back to normal.

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
As the original poster's another thread says, drain the tank, and you will be able to experiment with this.

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
As the original poster's another thread says, drain the tank, and you will be able to experiment with this.

No thanks. I'll wait and see how it works out for someone else first. 8)

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
Here is an idea for DIYers. Add a secondary standpipe, and attach an actuated valve on it. The secondary standpipe will be lower than the main standpipe/overflow in the tank, so when the valve opens, and drains into a large bucket, the water level will be at the lower level. After a few minutes, shut the valve off, and turn on a water pump that replace all the water back in. There are some ramification with the main plumbing, but it is sufficient to get the idea across described above.

But if I have the resource to make this tidal simulator, will I do it? My opinion is that I will rather use the money and time to drive to another reefer's house, and pay him some money for a frag or two instead.

 

[CraigLampe]

Actually, what I was really trying to say is that the SPS corals that I do this to are not only "back to normal"

but they actually perk up and appear to be HEALTHIER!!! (after about 30min-1hour of slime-removal time by the water current!)

 

[liquid]

You've perked my curiosity...how exactly do you measure that they are "happier"?

Shane

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
The key word maybe is "appear." Another explaination is the water current. Most people don't have water current that can actually good enough to remove the slime, AND gentle enough not to do damage to the coral. Craig seems to be doing well on this area.

 

[CraigLampe]

As far as how "healthy" they "look", I guess my main observation is the length of extension of the polyps (I use this to gauge happiness of LPS as well, star polyps, pagoda), having already known that some are "long tentacle/polyp" types and some are inherently "short tentacle/polyp" types.

I guess sometimes I am just looking for more DIY projects when everything is going 100% perfect it almost gets a little boring unless you think up a new project/challenge!!

 

[Emperator]

imagine the wretched smell wafting through your home when the corals are exposed. ugh! :

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
I know a Xenia "expert" who can tell you the type of Xenia (IP,RS,PP, etc) just by smelling it out of water.

I just want to say that polyp extension is not a good indicator of coral health. If someone want to see it, I can get some picture of dying corals whose polyp extension can make many of your envy.

 

[Anonymous]

Also, a lot of the pictures around that show corals exposed are probably taken at extreme low tides, not a typical daily tide. And even then, it would only be the very shallowest that would be subject to it.

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
Furthermore, shallow water have lower Kelvin temperature, while majority of reef lighting (10kK and above, e.g.) are for 10 meter or deeper. So why would people want to simulate deep water lighting condition (other than blue appearance), but want shallow water tidal effect?