Large water change in small tank?

[barry cuda]

Just wondering how you accomplish a large water change (like 50% or more) in a nanoreef without injuring sessile inverts? Are they able to withstand momentary exposure to air, or how do you do this?

 

[seschaefer]

I have never done much over a 20-25% water change. I was told not to do much more than that in a nano tank. If you do them weekly, or bi-weekly (depending on what is in the tank) you should not have to do more than that. Sorry if i did not answer your question, but that is the only answer i can give.
if nothing else maybe it will spawn some conversation for your post!
sean

 

[daniel411]

Why are you wanting to change such a drastic amount of water? Even a 20% change has an effect on everything inside. Its not just matching the salinity. Your temp, disolved oxygen, ph, calc, alk, magnesium, etc. will ally swing.
"Most" of the critters in our tanks can be momentarily exposed to air. But its something to avoid if we can.

 

[barry cuda]

I'm not necessarily wanting to
I've just read some posts on other forums where nanoreefers have said they do large water changes regularly, and I'm trying to figure out how they do this without huge problems. I guess the answer is, maybe they don't I don't even have a nano tank yet, I'm just exploring the feasibility because the concept really intrigues me.

 

[sagxman]

I have only done water changes of that magnitude in extreme situations. Last one I did was near half when I moved my tank from my apt. to my new house. Everything did fine. I think I may have had a very small amonia spike though. I didn't lose anything in the move though.
Other than that I only did large changes when I was having a major algea bloom problem and had maybe one fish at the most in the tank.
I usually do 4 gals. at the most out of my 20.