Possible 120 Reboot - ideas/advice welcome

[mcphock]

Wow, how time flies!

It's been nearly 3 years now since I originally setup my 4x2x2. I've learned a tremendous amount about both practical and ethical fish keeping since that time. When I started, my entire aqua scaping scheme was a ****-heap of rocks. After having seen many of your tanks, clearly this is not the way to go!

I've just about made up my mind about this, but I'm still not 100% sure. I am looking for some advice/input from you guys to help me decide one way or another.



Advantages/Rationale for reboot:
<ul>
<li>Total system clean - hoses, overflow kit, et al.</li>
<li>Sand replacement + depth increase - I put my rock on top of my sand when I started up. Didn\'t know any better. Now I do Will utilize DSB in display as well.</li>
<li>Total aquascape redesign - the presentation at the frag meeting really gave me some good ideas. I like the \'reef face\' look.</li>
<li>Totally fresh, dry rock - This time, I will start with 100% dry rock to avoid any pests/nuisance algea that I\'ve had issue with</li>
<li>Skimmer and Sump upgrade. I\'ve got a nice sump, but it is a little small for my tank. Looking forward to upgrading to a bigger, better one with room for a nice skimmer.</li>
</ul>Disadvantages:
<ul>
<li>Time consuming - Not a job I can tackle by myself.</li>
<li>What to do with livestock, part 1:

• </li>
  <li>I want to keep my fish, but will have no where to house them</li>
  <li>I want to keep select corals, but will have no where to house them</li>
  </ul>
• What to do with livestock, part 2:
  <ul>
  <li>Some of my rock has nuisance algea on it - red turf and bubble. Brutal stuff.
  • </li>
    <li>What to do with coral attached to this? I dont want to reuse the rock.</li>
    <li>After 3 years, the rock is encrusted with lots of good things too. I\'ve got sponges of all colors and sizes</li>
    </ul>

Any one have any suggestions, especially on the livestock part? If someone were willing/capable of housing my fish and select corals for a few weeks, I would be willing to pay in corals or otherwise. (I have a particularly nice, dinner plate sized RBTA that I'm offering as a starting point. If desired, I could also offer another, smaller RBTA from split from the original. The smaller split is about saucer sized.


EDIT:

Here is the aquascaping design I'm looking for. Please see the enclosed, terrible drawings.

Can anyone tell me what this style is called? "Reef face"? I've been trying to find example pictures online, but I can't seem to get the search terms close enough to give me examples. :doh:

I'm not entirely sold on this design, so I want to look around a bit. I think it would create a striking display, and certainly give the fish more room to swim. However, it would be "out of balance" according to design principles. (Golden ratio, etc)
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[snowmansnow]

take time and do it right..... if you have to sell, give away livestock to get things set up right you will be glad you did in the long run... maybe someone has room to keep your stuff a few months.....

jmo

b

 

[falos]

You can set up a small tank 40b to house stuf
Corals on bad rock git
5gal bucket half full of tank watter add 1ml of iodine
Large flat head screwdriver or an all
Hammer 1lb works best but a framing hammer will do fine
Cardboard to set the rock on
Chisel the rock away around the bace of the coral go down not at an angle you just have to git the outside then lay it on its side and do half the bottem hold the rock not the coral
Rember to soak the coral every min or wen you nick off a chunk of rock work slow and you will be ok
After you knock off all the rock you can scrub the corals bace and eny left rock with a tooth brush

 

[grouper therapy]

Why the sandbed increase?

 

[mcphock]

To institute a DSB setup. The extra buffering + denitrification are attractive to me.

It's gonna require careful powerhead placement though!

 

[frantz]

I enjoy moving my rocks around from time to time, as the coral grows this has become more challenging. I feel like alot of your concerns could be fixed without redoing everything from scratch. Algae issues won't be cured by new rock though.