Total Reaquascape-Is it a potential nightmare/cycle

[Reefnjunkie]

I am want to redo my rockwork and maybe more of the reason, I have 2-4 fish I really want out-yes enough to take out all the rock and re-do it.

I was initailly going to take everything out, snad and all-rinse sand and go 1 inch deep and replace everything.
A few loacals form my areas forum told me I will experiance a cycle to some degree and can risk loosing A LOT of what I have.

My question I have is if I took out all the rock -with leaving what base rock I must in order to not stir up the sand (much if possible), am I still risking some type of cycle?

I am sure some sand will be stirred a little even being as careful as can, its got to be unavoidable, I would think.

Just to give an idea of the task at hand heres a right and left side of my tank

-90% is SPS, I have about 30+ chalices I can put in a 20 gallon frag tank-so those will be fine, but I do have some LE SPS that I cant loose.



Any input as to what I may expect???

Thanks
Brad

 

[macawmagic]

I'm in the same boat, except I want to replace most of my rock as I have stupid mushrooms and paly's taking over EVERYTHING!

I'll keep an eye on this! thanks for posting this question!

 

[droblack]

Make a bunch of water for a large change. Take out all your corals and as much water as you can before you stir up anything. Gently take out all rock and syphon the nastiness out of the substrate. Add the rock back and water and then corals, use new water to top off. Do a water change soon thereafter if you are worried that you triggered a cycle.

 

[Mimi]

tank looks great. established. if you disturb the sand and rocks it will stress out all your coral and ruin the colors of sps. let things be and try fish trap. or get second tank and plum to the sump. Just my opinion.

 

[Reefnjunkie]

Make a bunch of water for a large change. Take out all your corals and as much water as you can before you stir up anything. Gently take out all rock and syphon the nastiness out of the substrate. Add the rock back and water and then corals, use new water to top off. Do a water change soon thereafter if you are worried that you triggered a cycle.

I plan to keep as much if not all the water, I'll have mixed up at least 40 gallons of new-I wont be doing any kind of siphon to the sand, as that is what will for sure cause some wicked kind of nasty to be released and risk the meltdown form spikes.

I don't "plan" on stirring the sand any more than what will happen by accident. I feel certain stirring up the sand is

tank looks great. established. if you disturb the sand and rocks it will stress out all your coral and ruin the colors of sps. let things be and try fish trap. or get second tank and plum to the sump. Just my opinion.

I should not disturb the sand at all, I am sure "some" will because I cant imagine it not getting accidently mixed up a little.

I'm on day 3 of the fish trap-its looking like it wont work which is why I posted this-I'm willing to remove it all, go through a "brown out" period, I just want to not have things die due to a spike from a mini cycle

 

[Azurel]

If you disturb the surface of the sand you shouldn't have any issues, even if you siphioned the ditritus off the surface you shouldn't have an issue. It's when you get deeper then an inch or more where the anorobic bactria settles in. If your rock is buried deep in the sand you could have issues as well, but I have been in your situation and never had any issues. I don't have as much SPS as you though really I wouldn't think that you would see much of a cycle at all since your not adding anything that wasn't all ready in there just don't want to realese the gas that could have built up...

 

[Reefnjunkie]

If you disturb the surface of the sand you shouldn't have any issues, even if you siphioned the ditritus off the surface you shouldn't have an issue. It's when you get deeper then an inch or more where the anorobic bactria settles in. If your rock is buried deep in the sand you could have issues as well, but I have been in your situation and never had any issues. I don't have as much SPS as you though really I wouldn't think that you would see much of a cycle at all since your not adding anything that wasn't all ready in there just don't want to realese the gas that could have built up...

Thats sort of what I thought and figured-Thanks for the feedback-

I must be crazy-:bigsmile:

 

[RBursek]

Ditto Droplak,
When I moved my tank, I had new SW made up at the new house, took the fish, corals, invetabrates and rock into buckets with the original tank water, what was left I siphoned the sand and rinced it in SW put that into buckets with just enough SW to cover it. Same with fuge/sump. 8hrs later added the sand, rock and the water it was in, fish corals invetabrates, and the water they where all in, filled the sump/fuge with fresh SW that was waiting to be used. I lost nothing, no cycle, and I got out some unwanted items I could not catch in the tank untill I drained it to move!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Troylee]

If you disturb the surface of the sand you shouldn't have any issues, even if you siphioned the ditritus off the surface you shouldn't have an issue. It's when you get deeper then an inch or more where the anorobic bactria settles in. If your rock is buried deep in the sand you could have issues as well, but I have been in your situation and never had any issues. I don't have as much SPS as you though really I wouldn't think that you would see much of a cycle at all since your not adding anything that wasn't all ready in there just don't want to realese the gas that could have built up...

+1 no cycle if you don't disturb more than the top inch... I have done what you want a few times actually just did it Friday but I replaced all the substrate with new stuff... My tank is strictly sps and I didn't have any problems..

 

[JR's Reef]

Ive done it many times without issues. Ive done it with sand, sand to no sand and back to sand. When I did it with sand I removed everything thats not touching the sand then drained 90% of the water into buckets then removed the rest of the rock and cleaned sand bed and scraped the rest of the water as everything will be released in it. Then put it all back together mixed up water that I needed to add back to tank

 

[J&O'sdad]

If you are just trying to catch fish. Get a small ice fishing hook and shave the barb off. Put a feeder guppy on and get ready to land the problem fish. Chances are you will catch every fish in the tank before the one you want.

 

[moto826]

you should not have a problem jest do a big water change after you get done

 

[RBursek]

Ditto Oscaorsdad,
I love your Avatar!!! Is that a real pic of Nick Noltie???

 

[Reefnjunkie]

I tried the hook, grabbed my smallest egg hook and threaded mysis onto it-can you picture that-MYSIS-LOL

Anyway it hit it twice but never got the barb-

I was going to do a total tear down, removing all the sand and then rinsing it in SW and only pitting back like an inch-most of the locals on my forum in town said I would most likely get a small cycle and strong chance of losing some corals-I just moved half a dozen chalices to my 20 gallon frag tank-Its got 4-24 watt T5s so all should be good-water params are good-funny looking into that Tupperware, going 2,4,550,7,850,1050 dollars

AH SNAP-don't die!!!

Thanks guys-I'll post up the outcome-it'll be next Saturdays project-start at 8 am and see how long it takes-

Thanks again!!!

 

[Aquascaper]

Hey Reefjunkie,

My screen-name is actually my "professional" name..
Aquascaping is my true specialty...

I will agree with the previous posts in that you should not see a "cycle"-
for the most part,the beneficial bacteria that grow in our closed loop systems are very short lived and are replaced generation by generation...
since the total bacteria populous is at various ages within an established tank-barring a major wipe out-(power outage, tank crash,etc) the loss or removal of bacteria is seldom large enough to cause a cycle, nor is it the down turn of a rescape....

Gas pockets released from deep sand beds can cause severe health risks to the livestock...
Remember- when dealing with this "ecosystem in a glass box" most changes that occur quickly (whether good or bad) often result in stress, coral firing, and a major breakup in the time clock at which the tank lives...
Examples: photosynthesis, ph cycle- thus ca and alk levels, boron, magnesium.......gas exchange, temp, light exposure, water flow....

Quick Notes:
Established rock contains Sponge- do not expose to air:tongue:

Corals Fire toxins when held- rinse in separate saltwater prior to
reintroduction to the tank...

House fish separate from coral- and watch for any signs of aggression..

Be prepared with at least 1.5x the amount of your tanks volume with new saltwater- Do not reuse water that has been used to temp house your coral, nor any water used to house the fish during rescape...


Be Prepared with plenty water- replace any mechanical media after rescape and allow yourself plenty of uninterrupted time to perform all activities needed...

And the most important rule of all HAVE FUN!!!!

 

[Reefnjunkie]

Be Prepared with plenty water- replace any mechanical media after rescape and allow yourself plenty of uninterrupted time to perform all activities needed...

QUOTE]

I should not are can not use any of the existing water? I was planning on being able to use at least half with thte other half been freshly made up-after its sat 24 hours of course.

Thanks for the other tips-I had not thought of the rinsing part.

 

[Aquascaper]

you certainly can- but it is ill advised to use any of the used water once it leaves the tank....

'Scaping is both an Art and a Science...

once the livestock has been returned to the display- there will be plenty of coral firing, zoozanthellae light acclimation, fish relocation acclimation, etc....

to reintroduce water, that may be less than optimum, is just an added variable in the stress levels of the tank..

Q. Is reusing water dangerous?
A. Not USUALLY,- but the idea of rescaping encompasses: cleaning, livestock placement or replacement..... and a Renaissance of life for both the display and the owner (YOU)...

summary- wait 'till it is the right time and we are properly prepared to rescape.... The reward will be worth it....

"failing to prepare, is indeed preparing to fail"
I believe- Abraham Lincoln?