I've mentioned my "big rock swap" on several threads now, so I'm finally following through with pictures and a history.
When I first setup this tank back in 2005, I wanted to focus on the most environmentally friendly rock I could, so got maricultured live rock from Florida. 5 bucks/lb, and that was a good deal at the time. It wasn't terribly exciting rock, but it was coraline algae covered and some pieces were fairly interesting. More importantly, I got some very large pieces - probably a 40 and 60lb rock - good for large tanks.
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Here's what it looked like the day after I got it in place:
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After a year or two of adding corals and growth, I end up with this:
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Then I moved from Stone Mountain to Roswell.... By this point, a lot of the corals attached to the rocks, making positioning much more difficult - there's only so many ways a large rock can go when a large millepora is tabling off of it and have it look ok.
I did my best with the rock, but it just wasn't pretty:
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But I figured that eventually the corals would cover the rock, and you'd never know that there was uninteresting rock underneath. Turns out that you can't make up for lack of good aquascaping with coral placement.
Then I had problem after problem after I moved. I had a big clam disaster, where I lost about 14 clams in 12 days. Then I lost a bunch of acros. Then a bunch of fish to Ich being introduced. Then I had a majano infestation. And then recently, the aptasia hit. I had also been fighting nuisance algaes to some small degree - that was just more annoying than anything.
I finally started changing everything - all the RO filters (brands and types), different salt, different dosing, Chloramine testing - you name it. I finally started wondering if I was fighting the rock itself - just not enough biological carrying capacity for my needs. It was a stretch, but was the only thing left.
Swapping out the rock was also a chance to remove all the majanoes.... I've since become a majano-killing freak...
So I started planning the big swap. About two months ago, I bought 250lbs of Tatoka rock from Fiji (via Sal). It's basically old pocillapora colony skeletons, but much more interseting than the carribean rock that I already had. After a bunch of planning, adding a 300g tank for my wife, two months of cycling, and adding in a little at a time, I finally got around (this past weekend) to swapping the rock out.
I pulled out all the easy corals first- the unattached ones and ones easy to pop off. Then, using the combination grinder with a tile saw attachment, a long masonry bit for my drill, and a large flathead screwdriver, I went to town on the larger corals. It took about 5 hours to get everything transferred from my main tank to the frag tank downstairs, but finally did it. I'll be able to cherry pick from my corals now. I emptied the tank down to the bottom - the only thing left was the fish and an RBTA.
Then I started to add in the Totoka rock, and here's what I got after a couple hours:
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New lights were pending as well (moving from two 1000w to four 400w on LumenBright mini's), so while this was happening, I decided to work on the canopy (I'll cover that in another post in this thread). When done with that, I realized the plumbing was all in the way, so I spent last night removing my beloved OceansMotions unit for a much sleeker design:
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I'm still not 100% happy with the left side, but I plan to work on that tonight. Tomorrow, the lights go back on and the corals start to go back in!
When I first setup this tank back in 2005, I wanted to focus on the most environmentally friendly rock I could, so got maricultured live rock from Florida. 5 bucks/lb, and that was a good deal at the time. It wasn't terribly exciting rock, but it was coraline algae covered and some pieces were fairly interesting. More importantly, I got some very large pieces - probably a 40 and 60lb rock - good for large tanks.
Here's what it looked like the day after I got it in place:
After a year or two of adding corals and growth, I end up with this:
Then I moved from Stone Mountain to Roswell.... By this point, a lot of the corals attached to the rocks, making positioning much more difficult - there's only so many ways a large rock can go when a large millepora is tabling off of it and have it look ok.
I did my best with the rock, but it just wasn't pretty:
But I figured that eventually the corals would cover the rock, and you'd never know that there was uninteresting rock underneath. Turns out that you can't make up for lack of good aquascaping with coral placement.
Then I had problem after problem after I moved. I had a big clam disaster, where I lost about 14 clams in 12 days. Then I lost a bunch of acros. Then a bunch of fish to Ich being introduced. Then I had a majano infestation. And then recently, the aptasia hit. I had also been fighting nuisance algaes to some small degree - that was just more annoying than anything.
I finally started changing everything - all the RO filters (brands and types), different salt, different dosing, Chloramine testing - you name it. I finally started wondering if I was fighting the rock itself - just not enough biological carrying capacity for my needs. It was a stretch, but was the only thing left.
Swapping out the rock was also a chance to remove all the majanoes.... I've since become a majano-killing freak...
So I started planning the big swap. About two months ago, I bought 250lbs of Tatoka rock from Fiji (via Sal). It's basically old pocillapora colony skeletons, but much more interseting than the carribean rock that I already had. After a bunch of planning, adding a 300g tank for my wife, two months of cycling, and adding in a little at a time, I finally got around (this past weekend) to swapping the rock out.
I pulled out all the easy corals first- the unattached ones and ones easy to pop off. Then, using the combination grinder with a tile saw attachment, a long masonry bit for my drill, and a large flathead screwdriver, I went to town on the larger corals. It took about 5 hours to get everything transferred from my main tank to the frag tank downstairs, but finally did it. I'll be able to cherry pick from my corals now. I emptied the tank down to the bottom - the only thing left was the fish and an RBTA.
Then I started to add in the Totoka rock, and here's what I got after a couple hours:
New lights were pending as well (moving from two 1000w to four 400w on LumenBright mini's), so while this was happening, I decided to work on the canopy (I'll cover that in another post in this thread). When done with that, I realized the plumbing was all in the way, so I spent last night removing my beloved OceansMotions unit for a much sleeker design:
I'm still not 100% happy with the left side, but I plan to work on that tonight. Tomorrow, the lights go back on and the corals start to go back in!
