I am planning on re-aquascaping my 150 gallon tank and am looking for suggestions on my plan. I have about 100 lbs of rock currently in my tank, and I just ordered another 50 lbs of dry rock. I am re-aquascaping because the rock currently in my tank is very unstable and built on top of a mound of sand. I would also like to secure the rock with glue and acrylic rods this time. My plan is to place all the coral on the sandbed, take out each piece of rock, clean it, and put it in the sump. I will then siphon out the detritus and level the sand. I will then place most of the rock back in the main tank to be aquascaped later. I will remove some rock and use it to make half of the aquascape, along with the dry rock I ordered. When this section of the aquascape is complete, I will place it in the tank for about a week, remove the other rocks that I have not aquascaped yet, and then aquascape those. Hope this makes sense, thanks in advance.
Re-aquascaping help
- Thread starter Jim C
- Start date
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I did a total redo on my 150 about 18 months ago and my process was similar, but a few things you said require some further explanation.
- you are going to clean the rock and then put it in your sump. Define clean. I just moved my rock into rock into the sump. You want to maintain the bacteria colony.
- you are going to remove some of the rock to use with the new rock to create the new scape. If this rock is going to be removed for an extended period of time it should be 'cooked' to ensure there is no dead residual biological matter that will decay when you put it back in the tank possibly causing an ammonia spike.
- my other thought is how heavy is your current bio load? Is half the existing rock going to be enough to maintain your nitrogen cycle?
When I did this I added a reactor full of searchem matrix 2 months before I did it for additional biological filtration. I would consider adding something along that lines. It can be as simple as adding additional rock to the sump and then once the new scape has been in place for 4 to 6 weeks you can start pulling it out.
- you are going to clean the rock and then put it in your sump. Define clean. I just moved my rock into rock into the sump. You want to maintain the bacteria colony.
- you are going to remove some of the rock to use with the new rock to create the new scape. If this rock is going to be removed for an extended period of time it should be 'cooked' to ensure there is no dead residual biological matter that will decay when you put it back in the tank possibly causing an ammonia spike.
- my other thought is how heavy is your current bio load? Is half the existing rock going to be enough to maintain your nitrogen cycle?
When I did this I added a reactor full of searchem matrix 2 months before I did it for additional biological filtration. I would consider adding something along that lines. It can be as simple as adding additional rock to the sump and then once the new scape has been in place for 4 to 6 weeks you can start pulling it out.
Thanks for your help.
-By "clean" I just meant dunking it in a bucket of tank water.
-I am planning on having the live rock removed for as long as it takes for my reef cement to dry. I just planned on wapping damp paper towel around it.
-Bioload consists of a few corals, yellow tang, hippo tang, royal gramma, and 2 chromis
-By "clean" I just meant dunking it in a bucket of tank water.
-I am planning on having the live rock removed for as long as it takes for my reef cement to dry. I just planned on wapping damp paper towel around it.
-Bioload consists of a few corals, yellow tang, hippo tang, royal gramma, and 2 chromis
Several techniques to cook/cure rocks.
""Curing" is the process of eliminating any dead and decaying material from the rock. This material will initially generate high levels of ammonia in your tank and this is toxic to many higher forms of marine life such as fish and corals. So, putting uncured live rock into an established reef tank with fish and corals can be disasterous. Uncured rock may be cured in a separate container or tank, or may be cured directly in your reef tank if it is a new set up without any other animals in the system."
Here is a link I took that quote from, about halfway down is one way to cur e the rocks. You would only do this if you took any rocks out of the tank for an extended period of time. Even in wet paper towels you will have some die off.
http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/curing_rock.asp
""Curing" is the process of eliminating any dead and decaying material from the rock. This material will initially generate high levels of ammonia in your tank and this is toxic to many higher forms of marine life such as fish and corals. So, putting uncured live rock into an established reef tank with fish and corals can be disasterous. Uncured rock may be cured in a separate container or tank, or may be cured directly in your reef tank if it is a new set up without any other animals in the system."
Here is a link I took that quote from, about halfway down is one way to cur e the rocks. You would only do this if you took any rocks out of the tank for an extended period of time. Even in wet paper towels you will have some die off.
http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/curing_rock.asp
