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Rock scapeing

Jeremy Brito

Jeremy Brito

So lately I've been adding some new corals to the tank and trying to do my best to accommodate there needs flow, lighting, ECT.. But what has had me vex'd is the rock scape and layout of the tank, from the beginning I haven't been truely happy with the tanks rock work, I mean I knew of all the little dog's and donts such as a- symmetry and adding depth by creating islands and fore ground and back ground areas but I ran into a problem with the initial set up with the difficulty I had working in the tank due to its height and depth an having the awkwardness of working from a ladder.
Any ways the question I am faced with is do I re scape the tank, will doing it upset the tank in anyway, or should I just leave it alone and try something else?

Any words of advice or opinions about a late in the game change in,the tanks layout
 
julie

julie

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Jeremy Brito said:
So lately I've been adding some new corals to the tank and trying to do my best to accommodate there needs flow, lighting, ECT.. But what has had me vex'd is the rock scape and layout of the tank, from the beginning I haven't been truely happy with the tanks rock work, I mean I knew of all the little dog's and donts such as a- symmetry and adding depth by creating islands and fore ground and back ground areas but I ran into a problem with the initial set up with the difficulty I had working in the tank due to its height and depth an having the awkwardness of working from a ladder.
Any ways the question I am faced with is do I re scape the tank, will doing it upset the tank in anyway, or should I just leave it alone and try something else?

Any words of advice or opinions about a late in the game change in,the tanks layout
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I'm not really sure how to change it at this point without disrupting anything. The last time I did a full landscape change there was one issue so I hope you don't run into this one. I took a child's plastic swimming pool then I pump water from the tank into it so it was the same water. Then I gently took every piece of rock and coral out of the tank and put it in the plastic swimming pool. After that was done I emptied out just enough water to make a full regular water change. Then gently placed the Rock and corals back where I wanted them. Then this is where I made my biggest mistake! I took the water from the plastic swimming pool and put it back into the tank do not do this! Just add new rodi water. Like a regular scheduled water change. When I had made the mistake of adding the water from the plastic swimming pool into the tank it got super cloudy was cloudy for two days and on the third day of finally started clearing up and at that point realized what the mistake was because it was cloudy for like 2 almost 3 days it killed all of our corals! We had to start fresh in our 90 gallon display tank. It's just now starting to look great again! It took almost six months to get back on track! It's so much easier when you get it right the first time! Can you send a pic? maybe I have other ideas!
 
Mark...

Mark...

I would do small changes over time. I'd add rock up and around the overflow to start and move a couple of established coral covered rock to the top of this new pile. I would use pieces at the ends (especially from the right end) of your current scrape for the new top of the pile area. Since it would be off center it would cause tension to the eye which is generally is a good thing. It would also hide the overflow. Just a thought.
 
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E

evoIX

Need more height and open spaces between rockwork. Looks like a pile of rock. I would be very worried about making a change and causing a spike due to sand stir, removing rock too long while aquascaping with die off (keeping them WET) while redoing it may help reduce die off, etc.

Its not impossible. Just be aware that is what is going to happen if you reuse the rock in there now.

My suggestion? I would create new scape from new rock and cure in a big cheap bin using new and current tank water. Seed it with a piece of rock in current tank as well.

Bin must be circulated and heated.

Wait for like a month, if you can, doing weekly water changes from your tank to give beneficial and bad water into the bin is a plus imo.

When you do the switch over, try to keep some old rocks in because your tank load is still heavy on being reduced by the current rock bacteria.

Sorry for the long winded reply. Hope it helps.
 
diana a

diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
You could do so much with the rocks you have in there. You do need to be careful of your sandbed. Don't want to disturb it too much in one time. You have them all lying on top of each other flat. Maybe one or two more pieces could be used but not sure until it is redone. They can be propped to create a cave. If it wobbles in the position you want, then you would use a driveway marker (Lowes or HD). Drill a hole in each to fasten them together. When you want to re-scape, you just pull the marker out. nj reef.jpg
 
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Jeremy Brito

Jeremy Brito

raccioppi83 said:
That's one way to do it! How long are your lights running for btw?
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They ramp up at the time this picture was taken that is the brightest it gets the high light period is about 1 1/2 until it starts ramping down.. Now I am still kinda learning the lights and getting a better understanding of each channel right now I got the royal blues and the acentics high with the brights about 50% I was actually gonna do a post on,this explaining what I have and how its working to see if I can get some feed back but at the moment my note book with the settings is at home so maybe tomorrow
 
R

raccioppi83

Okay! I just see the cyano starting to form.. I just had the worst battle ever with cyano and I am just looking out for ya, if it starts getting bad, reduce the amount of time you have them on for.
 
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