Aquascaping

[White Lightning]

I am thinking about re-aquascaping my tank and was wondering about different methods. I really like the bonzai look but am not going to achieve that unless I remove 70% of my rock. I have approx 120lbs in a 65 gallon tank.

I was thinking about taking a good majoity of the rock out and placing it a rubbermaid with some of the tank water. Do you think if by removing the rock and having it exposed to the air for  a very short period of time, I will get a lot of die off? I am trying to avoid a spike. There is no way I can keep the rock in the tank while I try to do the aquascaping. I figure that I will take out the corals that are not attched and place then in a seperate rubbermaid  with a powerhead.

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions on aquascaping. I am hoping to get rid of this stupid mantis shrimp in the process. I actually had him in the net last night for about two seconds before he escaped. 

[Hookup]

Taking the rock out of your tank is no biggie... Personal experience I've put some on the floor (on plastic to not ruin the floor) for a few min (3-5) while I rescaped... the rocks were covered in zoa's & gsp ... no issues what so ever...

Scaping is very personal.. I like the open look of sand... small yet tall islands of rock with lots of sand... hard to achieve without bonding the rocks, (drilling & pegging or zip ties and epoxy etc)...

Draw a diagram or three.. might help...

[sdivell]

The wind in this video can get a little annoying because its hard to hear what he's saying but this shows a reef in Fiji which is exposed to the air during low tide for hours everyday, and everything is a live and well... your live rock should be fine out of your tank for a few minutes while you re-work it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfOBqEPX6GM&feature=channel_page

[White Lightning]

Thanks folks, guess what I'm doing today? Yeah that's right...giving my tank a new look.

[Hookup]

Pho Toes our man dee tories... 

[salvini55]

living up to the sig for real Tim!

[sdivell]

Pho Toes our man dee tories... 

I think Tim is correct.  Re-aquascaping is a mandatory photo update!

[Hookup]

living up to the sig for real Tim!

Spkelilng bi phone net ticks make sheer eve re one kan un dur stand doing cha tink?

[salvini55]

Well hooked up on phonics worked for you i guess lol it makes so much sense now 

[White Lightning]

That took me a bit to figure out. "Photos are mandatory"...haha

I never did get around to doing the tank today. I had some secondary plans to start a FOWLR tank and I wanted to remove some of the rock from my reef tank to start the FOWLR tank but something fell through. I'm hoping to get it done after work tomorrow. \

You can be sure I'll post some photos.

[White Lightning]

Ihave some good news and some bad news. The good news is; I finally got around to doing the aquascaping, and in the process managed to catch the mantis shrimp. I flushed him out of his rock with a freshwater dip.

The other good news is that I converted my 33 gallon freshwater tank into a FOWLR tank. Now I just need to decide what kind of fish I am going to get for it. I know that because of the size of the tank, I will be a little more limited in my choices.

The bad news is that in the process of all this I dropped my favourite torch coral and broke a piece of one of it's heads. It hasn't opened up all that much since then but I am hoping it will pull through with time.

As promised, I am posting some before and after picss. Tehe first is the before and the second is the after.

If anyone has any good suggestions for my FOWLR tank I would love to hear them.

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[salvini55]

Im diggin it

[Hookup]

what do you think of this?

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[White Lightning]

That's pretty cool. I like the minimal look with only  afew random rocks but in terms of filtration is it really enough? I'm not running a sump on this tank.

[Hookup]

I only see 2 fish... which isn't any load to speak of...

wut u got for fishies?  or other mesy things...

corals do not create a bioload worth worring about btw, mainly fish... messy eaters, fish nasties, over feeding... that's your contributor...  if you're a low load system, then the minimalist look sure should work... 

[Hookup]

whoopps. saw a third fishy...

You do not have to go quite as minimal as I did in paint... IMO the key is using sand.   Sand seperates your tank into "zones" or "spots"... or even better, focal points... with a big wall of rock, it's hard to know what you want me to look at... with sand separatingout the sections.. you have given me the visual clues to know where to look... (if you're buying this let me know, my wife no longer believes a word I say)

[White Lightning]

That is a very good point. I've always liked the "zones" look. In terms of bioload I have eight fish, a coral banded shrimp  and a sea serpent in the tank. The fish consist of five different types of damsels, two clarkii clownfish and a pajama cardinal. Some people may worry about the aggression of the damsels towards the cardinal buy in seven months I have not had any problems.

[Hookup]

Maybe you could plumb the two tanks together at one point.. increases water volume...

I'm not positive, but I think you'll be ok...  get some educated second and third opinions before droping that much more rock though... better safe than sorry.

[White Lightning]

Well I have decided to take out a few more pounds of liverock to add to my newly created FOWLR tank. There's still about 90lbs of live rock in there. I tried to take your advice Hookup but couldn't achieve the "zone look"  due to the footprint of the tank. It would have been much easier to accomplish with a four foot tank.

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[Hookup]

I think you've achieved a nice look.  Well done.... now just waiting for it all to grow in..