Re-Aquascaping

[NEWSALT]

Has anyone re-aquascaped their tank after its been running for a while? I want to redo the left side of my tank. What I thought I would do is take the rock out and put it in a rubbermaid container since most of my SPS are glued to the rock. I was going to keep it there overnight to allow the muck that will be stirred up in the tank a chance to settle. Then the next day I would start the new aquascaping. Can I keep the fish in the tank while this is going on? Will I get a mini cycle from stirring up alot of sand? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[reeferwanabe]

I don't know how many corals you are putting in container. I would at least run a small powerhead or air stone in this.I don't know how deep your sand bed is but if you vigorously stir up the sand you could release hydrogen sulfide trapped under the sand. this would not be good. if your not going to disturb but an inch on surface I would say your fish should be fine. wait for more feed back.

 

[Candi]

In my old 50g and in my 24g aquapod I reaquascape what feels like weekly LOL between deciding I don't like how something looks, or two corals getting to close, or having to catch a fish etc. Since everything was balanced just so touching one rock usually meant a few hour long headache. I'd just toss rocks into the tub of water change water while I worked (swishing it before putting it back in) My tanks have pretty good flow so there wasn't all that much stuff on the rocks ever. As for the sand bed, unless your rocks are really buried I don't see why you'd need to stir it up to much, just be careful when placing your rocks or pulling them out not to stir it up to much.

With my new tank I planned ahead, built the rockwork in three structures held together with zipties so if I need to move everything it's just three big things to scoot around or pull out and no rock slides

 

[blange3]

Hey Mike,

Don't you have room in the sump in the garage? I have a 110w PC strip you can borrow to put over the sump or rubbermaid.

As I recall your sand wan't deep and almost pristine, wo you won't get too much of cycle. I always coordinate a large water change with a major reaquascape.

I'm planning to redo my softie tank with a DSB. I'm moveing stuff out to a frag tank, hanging one of my old-fashion retro Diatom filters on the tank while it's stirred up and I'll probably move most of the corals back the same day.

Of course this is an all softie/zoa tank. Ok there's a cap and some digi pieces, but they don't count.

 

[NEWSALT]

Don't you have room in the sump in the garage?

The sump..that's right. Good idea. I don't have room for everything in there, but I could fit a decent amount in there. I would also do a large water change as well as use my Diatom filter after the move.