Ok, silly question but i need to know!
Water changes have been very simple in my fish only marine set up so far.
However, having added some lovely mushrooms and a leather coral i'm unsure if i need to move them to a lower position in the tank when i drop the water level?
Can they be exposed to air for any length of time? (i.e. when doing a water change)

erm if you have mushrooms or any corals its a reeftank not a fishonly set up.

as you have a reef you dont want to be doing anywater changes really.

nope dont agree with that - if you have fish in there you should be doing some water changes!

Even though your water parameters will be 0 its worth doing water changes to keep stability!

As i said "having added some mushrooms...etc" meaning it was previously fish only.

So i'm getting some conflicting advice...

Lets say hypothetically that there needs to be a water change in a saltwater aquarium which contains both corals and fish. Is it ok for the corals to be exposed to air during this time?

some can others cant, sponges cant be exposed to air, but in general its best not to expose most corals to air

Cheers very much, i'll move them down a bit and carry on.

how deep is your tank? you shouldnt be changing a huge volume of water from your tank - if you have a sump the level prob wouldnt drop that much :)

Good luck with them :)

Thanks!

It's 22" deep and only 190 litres (42 gal) so the water chemistry changes quite quickly when something goes wrong.

wish i'd bought a smaller sofa and a bigger tank!

Hi there,
Yes you are right, the paramerters change a lot more quickly in a smaller environment than in a larger one. I would recommend a 20% water change once a month, but in the smaller tank, you could for example do "little and often" eg 10% a fortnight.
Best to move the corals and mushrooms down a little (as you have already said you would do)but odd moments out of water aren't fatal.

actually water changes in a reef aqurium inbalances the stability therefore its best that the tank cycles the nitrates from ammonia to gas naturally.

thats the reason i say the berlin method is the only way to go for a reef aquarium properly.

the berlin method can remove nitrates!