What’s the longest have you had a frag out of the water ?

willieboy240 · Feb 24, 2020

Yesterday I was moving stuff around in my aquarium. I dropped a small sps stick frag on the floor. I looked all over for it. Couldn’t find it. It was driving me nuts looking for it. Well I found it 3 hours later. Threw it into my grow out tank. It’s still alive. Huh ? Crazy.

AllSignsPointToFish · Feb 24, 2020

The corals on my aquacultured live rock stayed alive in unheated boxes with only wet newspaper for five days back in November 2015

A lot of acropora grow in tidal flats where they are some times exposed to air for several hours continuously during anomalously low tides.

andrewkw · Feb 24, 2020

I'm pretty sure I've forgotten about some zoas and palys overnight and put them back the next day and they were fine.

I'm certain I've had several different types of coral out of the water about 12hrs. I've transported corals "dry" a few times as carry on. Just wrapped in a paper towel. This is fine for anything that is not overfly fleshy. sps, encrusting lps ect and of course zoas and palys.

Capital J · Feb 24, 2020

I threw away a rock containing some zoas on it. It sat outside in a garbage can for 2 days when I decided I wanted to frag a couple zoas off the rock. I did, and they survived. Probably got around low 50's at night when it sat in the garbage can.

brandon429 · Feb 24, 2020

lets test the bacteria, live rock sponges, corals, and all benthic creatures

I routinely drain my whole reef for half an hour, for no other reason than because it can and its cool to feel like a rule breaker. Ive no fish, so there's nothing to flop on the sand. Ive dried my corals into seeming beef jerky/not a prob. Im not sure how far the whole system can go on being in the air, one day I guess Ill try 50 mins and see what happens. The filter bac will be the last to die from this, they're insulated the best by biofilms. I guess Ill know the limit when one of the corals bleaches out.

I still have sponges, live rock mini brittle stars etc, they all hole up in the rock awaiting a new flood.

Softhammer · Feb 24, 2020

I’ve had stuff for over 12 hrs bone dry during a tank move. All survived.

brandon429 · Feb 24, 2020

lines up with tidal exposure evolution/adaptation

2Wheelsonly · Feb 24, 2020

willieboy240 said:
Yesterday I was moving stuff around in my aquarium. I dropped a small sps stick frag on the floor. I looked all over for it. Couldn’t find it. It was driving me nuts looking for it. Well I found it 3 hours later. Threw it into my grow out tank. It’s still alive. Huh ? Crazy.

I had some colonies growing out of control and decided to just take it completely out and make frags out of it instead of trimming back. I think I made around 25 frags and left two sitting at the top of my tank for almost 4 hours. Luckily it was at night without the lights on but they seemed to make it as I didn't have many issues.

Xenia is a different beast, got some live rock for free but didn't trust it base on the conditions the tank it came from were in. It had a great shape and was very large so I decided I still wanted to use it. I aired it out, sprayed it with a garden hose and left it sitting out on pavers near my pool. I left it out for maybe two days, dry an clean as can be. I put it in a bin of existing rock for 24 hours and then eventually threw it in my tank. Slowly over the course of the next 3 months the xenia because active again and started growing like weeds.

This stuff can't be killed!

_darkmark808 · Feb 24, 2020

I ordered some corals that had styrofoam on the bottom of the frag plug. This was done to keep the frag plug above water and the coral submerged. Anyways, during the shipping process a couple of the frags flipped exposing my brain coral, cyphastrea, and zoas to air. 2 day shipping. I received them cold also, a cool 63 degrees. All survived.

Ileanaguz69 · Feb 24, 2020

brandon429 said:
lets test the bacteria, live rock sponges, corals, and all benthic creatures

I routinely drain my whole reef for half an hour, for no other reason than because it can and its cool to feel like a rule breaker. Ive no fish, so there's nothing to flop on the sand. Ive dried my corals into seeming beef jerky/not a prob. Im not sure how far the whole system can go on being in the air, one day I guess Ill try 50 mins and see what happens. The filter bac will be the last to die from this, they're insulated the best by biofilms. I guess Ill know the limit when one of the corals bleaches out.

I still have sponges, live rock mini brittle stars etc, they all hole up in the rock awaiting a new flood.

Wow! Good to know. I like to try new things to. Specially with saltwater, i think it's no just one rule. Impredeci

brandon429 said:
lets test the bacteria, live rock sponges, corals, and all benthic creatures

I routinely drain my whole reef for half an hour, for no other reason than because it can and its cool to feel like a rule breaker. Ive no fish, so there's nothing to flop on the sand. Ive dried my corals into seeming beef jerky/not a prob. Im not sure how far the whole system can go on being in the air, one day I guess Ill try 50 mins and see what happens. The filter bac will be the last to die from this, they're insulated the best by biofilms. I guess Ill know the limit when one of the corals bleaches out.

I still have sponges, live rock mini brittle stars etc, they all hole up in the rock awaiting a new flood.

Wow! I'm krazy to hear this kind of stuff. I like to try new things too. In my opinion when it's about saltwater nothing is written on stone. The marine life is unpredictable and resilient. But once i hang out a rock out of the water and brittle stars jump to the water. So i don't know how much they can tolerate be out.

Reef AquaCult · Feb 24, 2020

Crazy stories here! Very interesting

Daveobrien · Feb 24, 2020

Dr Bruce Carlson, then director of the Waikiki aquarium taught me how to transport SPS year ago - Dry. pull coral out, put in Tupperware or plastic bag, with a damp paper towel for humidity... Your good to go for 24, 48, or 72hrs. I've personally done 48 hrs easily, Bruce brought me corals that had been 72+hrs easily.

Locally, I don't bother putting water in any transport containers between friends. I do put a lid on, and try and keep in cooler for Some kind of thermal buffering. Zero losses, ever.

Caveat, I've never tried this on an LPS. Only SPS.

gig 'em · Feb 24, 2020

The coral lab I work for at the University of Texas transports there corals dry wrapped in bubble wrap and a paper towel. No losses according to the lead research scientist!

B7Joe · Feb 25, 2020

Last summer, I removed a small piece of live rock with some zoas on it and just completely forgot about it. A week later, I tossed it in a planter outside.

A few weeks ago I needed a piece of rock to mount a frag and remembered the piece I left outside for MONTHS in temperatures ranging from 108 to 32 degrees. Incredibly, the zoas all survived and they are now growing like weeds. lol j/k!

After reading through this thread I’m starting to think that reef guys, kinda like car guys, tend to exaggerate a bit.

MombasaLionfish · Feb 25, 2020

Do you think aiptasia anemones can survive without water if they cant this would be an easy way to get rid of them.

Bmasculine · Feb 25, 2020

This is very interesting if I even look at acropora the wrong way it dies on me.

brandon429 · Feb 25, 2020

tank drain test:

drag through it so you don't have to wait 33 mins

12 hours later. 14 yr old system has been done 50 times at least maybe a hundred.

Abhishek · Feb 25, 2020

Daveobrien said:
Dr Bruce Carlson, then director of the Waikiki aquarium taught me how to transport SPS year ago - Dry. pull coral out, put in Tupperware or plastic bag, with a damp paper towel for humidity... Your good to go for 24, 48, or 72hrs. I've personally done 48 hrs easily, Bruce brought me corals that had been 72+hrs easily.

Locally, I don't bother putting water in any transport containers between friends. I do put a lid on, and try and keep in cooler for Some kind of thermal buffering. Zero losses, ever.

Caveat, I've never tried this on an LPS. Only SPS.

This is true ! Acros will just be fine provided the temperature is on the lower end . Wouldn’t try this with temperatures above 80 . 60s and low 70s will be great