How long can sps be out of water?

[B22]

Depends how much you paid ;-)
Those expensive frags always handle less it seems.

Haha that seems to be my experience also.
I would just do like others have said and mist the the coral if you keep it out longer then 10-15 minutes

 

[Squadir]

I travelled with a lot of sps in damp paper towels for about 15 hours with just one loss because it dried out (was not damp enough I guess)
If you need to keep it out very long just mist them every now and then or take a little piece of damp (with tank water) paper towel and gently 'wrap up' the corals

 

[smh254]

I had to drain my tank to remove some fish. All my acros did fine except for my birds nest. All the tips dried out and died. They were only out of the water for 20 minutes or so. It has recovered and is doing fine.

 

[smh254]

Before and after.

 

[favites]

As a general rule I like 15 minutes although some of my stags have been up to 45 minutes when I get distracted while doing a water change and are fine. My smooth skin acros like red dragons, hawkins etc. I really try to avoid any airtime as I will occasionally lose one one after fragging and letting the frag dry outside the tank for 5 minutes...point is, they are definitely more susceptible to any stressors...

 

[revhtree]

As a general rule I like 15 minutes although some of my stags have been up to 45 minutes when I get distracted while doing a water change and are fine. My smooth skin acros like red dragons, hawkins etc. I really try to avoid any airtime as I will occasionally lose one one after fragging and letting the frag dry outside the tank for 5 minutes...point is, they are definitely more susceptible to any stressors...

45 min? How were the acros?

 

[Jdeleon]

mine get exposed during a water change for about 10-15 min, I worry more about the light burning them at that point,

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Take it out and if it doesn't slime, it won't last long without keeping it moist. Not all SPS have slime coating for protection against drying up. Some will look quite dry the moment it come out of water, feels dry to the touch.

 

[favites]

45 min? How were the acros?

for my hardy stags and montipora I have never lost anyone at 45 minutes. I never intend to keep them out of water that long and might throw some water over them if I remember, but otherwise slime heavy and look great the next day. Should not be surprising as many sps may be exposed at lower tides etc for a longer period of time. anyway, not recommended , just interesting to note many sps are a lot hardier than we think..