Let’s start with a quick story about coraline algae, an observation, and then my question.
First, I’m happy to report some great growth recently, corals and coraline algae. Interestingly, I noticed a sharp horizontal line where coraline algae would not grow above this line. At first I though this was related to the angle of my lights - maybe my lid creating a shadow. But the angles didn’t line up, and why was it so straight and horizontal? Something didn’t add up.
Then yesterday, I did a larger water change. Exactly twice the normal amount. When I was done (about 30min later), I noticed a horizontal band of coraline algae at the top that had turned bright pink. Then it all magically clicked for me.
The coraline algae won’t grow above the water line during my regular water changes, and when I did a double amount water change, a band of equal sized clearly showed stressed pink coraline algae. I’m assuming this is from the air exposure, maybe a temp drop as a result of being out of the water.
Now the question. Is this normal? I can’t find a lot of topics on this, but I have googled a few with a similar experience. My concern is that I expose a few corals to air during water changes as well. Am I inadvertently hurting them, and should I change my water change practices? If it’s bad enough for the coraline algae, it can’t be good for the corals...
First, I’m happy to report some great growth recently, corals and coraline algae. Interestingly, I noticed a sharp horizontal line where coraline algae would not grow above this line. At first I though this was related to the angle of my lights - maybe my lid creating a shadow. But the angles didn’t line up, and why was it so straight and horizontal? Something didn’t add up.
Then yesterday, I did a larger water change. Exactly twice the normal amount. When I was done (about 30min later), I noticed a horizontal band of coraline algae at the top that had turned bright pink. Then it all magically clicked for me.
The coraline algae won’t grow above the water line during my regular water changes, and when I did a double amount water change, a band of equal sized clearly showed stressed pink coraline algae. I’m assuming this is from the air exposure, maybe a temp drop as a result of being out of the water.
Now the question. Is this normal? I can’t find a lot of topics on this, but I have googled a few with a similar experience. My concern is that I expose a few corals to air during water changes as well. Am I inadvertently hurting them, and should I change my water change practices? If it’s bad enough for the coraline algae, it can’t be good for the corals...