Re-doing my aquascaping

[twistoflime]

Right now I think my rock is very crowded looking. Here is an old picture-
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I want to take all the liverock out and get new live rock making three "coral reef heads" and a much, much more open aquascape.My question is how risky would this be? I don't want to kill my corals or fish. I'd take out the 500 ibs of live rock and replace it with mabey 200. Is this do-able?

 

[twistoflime]

I'd like to do somthing like this except with 3 rock structures

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[fish scales2]

I would add dry base rock and cured liverock as well. Your sand bed is healthy and as long as you are careful you will be fine. You might consider adding some of your existing rock into sump for additional bacteria seed. You should be able to remove it after a month or so. Have water ready for wc and place all coral up on frag racks.

You still have store credit as well.

 

[gnashty]

I am not sure that is a good idea but I guess it could be done....in several stages. You would ultimately be taking a huge hit in the biological filtration dept though.

You are better off just taking rocks out slowly, put what you can in the sump/fuge - rehome the rest until you are happy with how it looks.

I did a thread similar to this a while back, look thru my posts

 

[fish scales2]

Dianne your rock is dense and not very porous, 200 lbs of good porous rock will be a lot more surface area than the existing 600+ you have now. That was crazy getting it into the tank.:yes:

 

[twistoflime]

Fish Scales2;596474 wrote: Dianne your rock is dense and not very porous, 200 lbs of good porous rock will be a lot more surface area than the existing 600+ you have now. That was crazy getting it into the tank.:yes:

I don't really know how much rock I would replace it with, I'd just stop adding rock when I thought it looked good . I remember having to carry all the rock down into the basment with my mom. That was not fun. It will be crazy getting it back out of the tank aswell.

This is just an idea I probrobly won't re-do it, but I'd like to if I can do it without losing my fish and corals.

 

[twistoflime]

gnashty;596469 wrote: I am not sure that is a good idea but I guess it could be done....in several stages. You would ultimately be taking a huge hit in the biological filtration dept though.

You are better off just taking rocks out slowly, put what you can in the sump/fuge - rehome the rest until you are happy with how it looks.

I did a thread similar to this a while back, look thru my posts

I don't think my rock provides much biological filtration any way. The rock is concreate so it is very dence and isn't porous at all. It's a custom rock wall that came with the set up when we bought it. I liked it untill I started putting more corals in, and then it just looked realy crowded.

 

[brianjfinn]

BIGGQ00;596554 wrote: i wouldnt take any rock out i would just rescape it all, thats just my personal opinion. if the current rock you have has good coraline algea growth, just rescape it to a way that you would like. im guessing the size of your tank is pretty large if you have that many lbs of rock in it. if they are small pieces then you should be able to move the rock around and make the 3 structures you want and provide the open space that you are looking. but i def agree with gnashty, do it in small movements. moving too much at once would not be a great idea. might stir up too much and send your tank into a re-cycling process.

I think the problem here is there are only a few very large pieces of man-made rock.

I say go for it! Depending on the size and number of pieces in your display, you could always seed a few pieces of live rock in your sump for a couple weeks and move them to your display, taking one or two pieces out of your display at a time.

 

[gnashty]

Fish Scales2;596474 wrote: Dianne your rock is dense and not very porous, 200 lbs of good porous rock will be a lot more surface area than the existing 600+ you have now. That was crazy getting it into the tank.:yes:

twistoflime;596535 wrote: I don't think my rock provides much biological filtration any way. The rock is concreate so it is very dence and isn't porous at all. It's a custom rock wall that came with the set up when we bought it. I liked it untill I started putting more corals in, and then it just looked realy crowded.

yeah, if its that dense then i too say go for it - it will just take a really long time. Mine was dense like yours and I wanted to redo it all. I was really worried about a re-cycle so I added (i had room) the rock i WANTED to half of the system and planned to remove all the dense stuff slowly over time. I havent removed an oz of it because I actually like the look of it now..

 

[skriz]

You can safely remove it all an replace it.

Just make sure you keep up with water changes and heavy skimming, especially right after you remove the rock structures and disturb the sand bed.