redoing rockscape in established tank

[swoons]

I will be scrubbing off nuisance algae that is on all the rock tomorrow out of the tank and thought to just rescape when I put the rock back in.
I am wondering if it's possible to do this without disturbing the sand bed or is this a risky plan? Any thoughts or comments on experiences with this would be appreciated.

 

[ks2509]

I would say you could do it with out disturbing most of the sand but just taking the rocks out will stir it up so I would recommend running some prime and carbon afterwards. I'm redoing my 40 gallon this next weekend I have to much rock. Even though I love my scape I cant get enough flow around it and junk builds up everywhere and water quality is suffering. I'm going to pull out my sand and rinse it in old tank water to clean it but it's going right back in.

 

[swoons]

I would say you could do it with out disturbing most of the sand but just taking the rocks out will stir it up so I would recommend running some prime and carbon afterwards. I'm redoing my 40 gallon this next weekend I have to much rock. Even though I love my scape I cant get enough flow around it and junk builds up everywhere and water quality is suffering. I'm going to pull out my sand and rinse it in old tank water to clean it but it's going right back in.

do you think a 15% water change after scaping would be good enough? or a larger one?

 

[ks2509]

do you think a 15% water change after scaping would be good enough? or a larger one?

I would say 15 would be fine. You could also siphon water as you go. Any gunk that is kicked up when you pull rocks try and vacuum it before it can spread. Either way your not gonna get it all and I would still dose some Prime to neutralize any ammonia you may release.

 

[Paul B]

Why do you want to scrub the rock? The algae will just grow back