Lugmos12 Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 I want to redo my rockscape because I believe I have too much rock and the rock shapes don't give me enough usable surface area. What is the best way to go about doing this. Tank has been running since July 2017. I plan on keeping some of the rock but not all. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 You can re arrange rock but its best to not disturb the ones in the sand. Disturbing the sand will release a lot of nutrients. If you are thinking of doing a complete change, it's best to follow procedures like when you upgrade a tank. Make salt water Siphon water into buckets- some for reuse, 1 rocks, 1 livestock Remove fish and corals into one bucket with an air hose Remove rocks into the other Siphon sand out, wash sand completely until it's clear with tap water. Last rinse with salt water. Clean tank up Redo rockwork, add sand, add bucket of salt water, add new salt water. Wait for water to get fairly clear, reach proper temp, salinity and alk is correct. Add livestock. There should be no spike in ammonia but monitor just to be safe. I like to fill a spray bottle (new) with sw and spray the rocks as I work to keep them completely wet. Pre planning the aquascape on paper helps too so it's a fast process. If you don't want to break it down, you will need to work with the aquascape without moving the rocks in the sand 1 Quote Link to comment
malacoda Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 You're thread title says 'replacing rock'... If you're going to replace some of your existing live rock with dry rock, it may also be wise not to replace more than 30-40%. Anything more than that and you may want to do it in stages over the course of a couple of months. Would hate to see you remove too much at once and reduce your biological/bacterial filter enough to cause an ammonia spike. If you're simply rearranging your existing live rock, then no need to worry about it. 1 Quote Link to comment
Lugmos12 Posted February 19, 2018 Author Share Posted February 19, 2018 @Clown79 @malacoda I want to replace some of the one that I have already. Because the shapes just aren't working for me. I might get some live rock from the LFS to decrease the change of losing beneficial bacteria. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted February 19, 2018 Share Posted February 19, 2018 I would place any rock in a bucket of sw and monitor for ammonia before placing it in the tank. Quote Link to comment
Lugmos12 Posted February 20, 2018 Author Share Posted February 20, 2018 5 hours ago, Clown79 said: I would place any rock in a bucket of sw and monitor for ammonia before placing it in the tank. also for dry rock? my #1 worry is crashing the tank from the loss of already established bacteria Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 You won't crash a tank by taking out a small portion but there is a risk that the dry rock you add isn't as clean as you think, causing a spike in ammonia. There are a few like walt Smith and caribsea that for sure are clean rock. My experience with my upgrade was removing some LR and replacing with caribsea. No spike in ammonia. I've also kept caribsea rock in SW and monitored it to see if any ammonia would be present, there wasn't. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Lugmos12 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 8 hours ago, Clown79 said: You won't crash a tank by taking out a small portion but there is a risk that the dry rock you add isn't as clean as you think, causing a spike in ammonia. There are a few like walt Smith and caribsea that for sure are clean rock. My experience with my upgrade was removing some LR and replacing with caribsea. No spike in ammonia. I've also kept caribsea rock in SW and monitored it to see if any ammonia would be present, there wasn't. I bought completely dry rock (not DRY live rock). I'm gonna monitor for ammonia spike. Will design my rock arch first though. Quote Link to comment
Lugmos12 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 @Clown79 The actual name of the rock I got was Caribsea white - dry. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 16 minutes ago, Lugmos12 said: @Clown79 The actual name of the rock I got was Caribsea white - dry. Definitely monitor before adding. I've purchased the white caribsea dry rock and there was ammonia present. Life rock is different than the white. 1 Quote Link to comment
Lugmos12 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 1 hour ago, Clown79 said: Definitely monitor before adding. I've purchased the white caribsea dry rock and there was ammonia present. Life rock is different than the white. how long did you monitor for? Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 within a day there was ammonia present in the container. I then added it to my Pico which went through a full cycle even with a piece of established liverock added. Quote Link to comment
Lugmos12 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 1 hour ago, Clown79 said: within a day there was ammonia present in the container. I then added it to my Pico which went through a full cycle even with a piece of established liverock added. I have a 5 gallon tank that's empty. I'll set something up tomorrow. I was also tempted to place all my corals in the 5 gallong and then just build the new rockscape altogether in the main tank Quote Link to comment
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