Changing an established aquascape. Advice needed.

[SDudge]

Hi - I recently bought a used 100g (3y/o) set up, which came with 12 fish and around 80kg of live rock and 5 bags of media.

I don't like the live rock piled ontop of eachother look and want to change for a clean, minimalist aquascape while still providing the necessary real estate for my fish.

I figure my only option is to build my scape with dead rock and slpwly put it in the tank while trying to keep as much of the current live rock as possible, for as long as possible. I can use the sump to house some indefinitely.

But it seems like such a waste of good rock (and money) so I wondered if there was a way I could chisel, drill and glue my way through the current live rock to create the scape I want without killing off the bacteria I need or causing problems for my livestock.

Here's a photo of the current rock situation.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mr Fishface]

Following as I'm curious what others will say. I would think it possible to drill or chisel without killing bacteria, as long as it's kept moist, but haven't tried it with live rock myself.

I can say that if you chisel or drill it, be sure to rinse it off before putting back in your tank. Granted I used dry rock but the inside produced a ton of dust/powder when I chiseled it.

 

[littlefoxx]

When Ive had rocks like that Ive cracked them in half, sanded and threw them on concrete to break into smaller pieces ans used reef cement to make structures. Kind of a pain in the butt to ve honest. I would get new rock I liked it it were me and just sell that rock

 

[SDudge]

Following as I'm curious what others will say. I would think it possible to drill or chisel without killing bacteria, as long as it's kept moist, but haven't tried it with live rock myself.

I can say that if you chisel or drill it, be sure to rinse it off before putting back in your tank. Granted I used dry rock but the inside produced a ton of dust/powder when I chiseled it.

Yeah I've seen a few videos of people shaping dry rock and the dust was crazy. Wasn't sure how that would work with wet live rock, feel like it would cake.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following this as well!

 

[SDudge]

When Ive had rocks like that Ive cracked them in half, sanded and threw them on concrete to break into smaller pieces ans used reef cement to make structures. Kind of a pain in the butt to ve honest. I would get new rock I liked it it were me and just sell that rock

Yeah these rocks feel pretty solid so I'm not even confident I could shape the way I want. I don't particularly want to smash them up and work with what's left either.

 

[OrchidMiss]

Hi - I recently bought a used 100g (3y/o) set up, which came with 12 fish and around 80kg of live rock and 5 bags of media.

I don't like the live rock piled ontop of eachother look and want to change for a clean, minimalist aquascape while still providing the necessary real estate for my fish.

I figure my only option is to build my scape with dead rock and slpwly put it in the tank while trying to keep as much of the current live rock as possible, for as long as possible. I can use the sump to house some indefinitely.

But it seems like such a waste of good rock (and money) so I wondered if there was a way I could chisel, drill and glue my way through the current live rock to create the scape I want without killing off the bacteria I need or causing problems for my livestock.

Here's a photo of the current rock situation.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I did this in my 110g, twice.
You absolutely can take that rock and break, chisel, and glue your current rock.
You want to have the rock out of the water for as little time as possible so the bacteria doesn't die off and cause you issues when reintroduced.
You can use a combination of super glue gel, coral cement/epoxy, and glue accelerant for fast adherence.

BRS super glue gel
Super glue accelerator
Epoxy putty

 

[SDudge]

I did this in my 110g, twice.
You absolutely can take that rock and break, chisel, and glue your current rock.
You want to have the rock out of the water for as little time as possible so the bacteria doesn't die off and cause you issues when reintroduced.
You can use a combination of super glue gel, coral cement/epoxy, and glue accelerant for fast adherence.

BRS super glue gel
Super glue accelerator
Epoxy putty

That's good to know. I feel it would take a good few hours to rescape. Could you keep the rocks wet by spraying with your tank water throughout the rescape process or is that not enough?

 

[OrchidMiss]

That's good to know. I feel it would take a good few hours to rescape. Could you keep the rocks wet by spraying with your tank water throughout the rescape process or is that not enough?

Keep a bucket with tank water, I used a Rubbermaid tote.
I basically did a water change and kept the rock in the old water while I worked.
I laid everything out on cardboard I cut into the footprint of the tank so I could keep in mind how big I should or shouldn't go. I chiseled and hammered each rock rock into large pieces first then broke them down as needed.

Build Thread - Suzi's Bond Villain 110g Predator Reef

I won't tell you how old I was in 1994.. I wasn’t for most of 94

www.reef2reef.com

 

[littlefoxx]

Yeah these rocks feel pretty solid so I'm not even confident I could shape the way I want. I don't particularly want to smash them up and work with what's left either.

Ah. The rocks Ive done that with had lots of holes all over lol

 

[SDudge]

So I went ahead with it. Have a load of the old rock in the sump and left some in the display.

Keeping a close eye on parameters going forward. Hopefully it won't spark an ugly stage as I'd like to get some corals on the go!