Resetting your reef: Have you ever had to unstack and restack the aquascape?

[Joekovar]

I have 3 PVC pipes that I coated in cement and aragonite , which stand upright the height of the tank as columns. A 6" and two 2" pipes.

At some point I decided to cut one of the 2" pipes shorter, and plop an acropora on top of it.

I got a new pair of the largest PVC cutters I could find, washed all the lube off of them, and went at it.

Never again... It probably took me an hour to finally get through that pipe. A lot of that time was spent worried I wasn't going to be able to get the cutters out of the tank, let alone cut all the way through.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the scape when I replace this tank next year. I'm definitely going to keep it simple though. I'll let the coral make all the crazy structures.

 

[NorCalReefing]

Yes!!! And you can read all about it here on my thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/redsea-reefer-750-renovation.1022522/

 

[bigbugoutfitters]

I just removed all of my rock to scrub all the hair algae off. Rescaped it and love the new look. Hair algae is back though and I don’t want to change the scape again. Looks like I need to find another hair algae solution!

 

[Bruce Burnett]

My problem is how do you rescape a tank that has been growing corals for three years and they have spread across multiple rocks. I have done it before because of a move but not to just redo the scape

 

[BillFish Coral Lover]

Absolutely no problem unstacking. Just going to put my hand over here, OOPS! And then the next three hours, unexpectedly, and quite unwillingly, spent trying to get them restacked any way they don’t come tumbling down on their own! Fun for anytime I need to do anything else.

 

[steveschuerger]

So a funny thing happened. My wandering blundering conch knocked over a rock I had perched, I thought fairly securely on another roughly same sized one that had 3 Gonis on it. Found it after getting this past night. Wouldn’t rebalance . So I ended up playing with that and a few other pieces. Changes are modest, and ironically I think will look much better.

 

[Timfish]

The same dissolution processes on reefs are happening in our systems. (Which I see as a good thing as it's adding bicarbonate and carbonates to a system.) If we keep systems as long as the livestock is capable of living, requascaping is a given, even if corals are continually trimmed to keep from overgrowing. Part of the reason I started using PVC was the frustration of aquascaping "readjusting" after as little as a handful of years.

 

[SueAubu]

Resetting your reef: Have you ever had to unstack and restack the aquascape?

Sometimes you just have to tear it down…or at least take some of the aquascape apart. Whether you are trying to catch a fish or invertebrate, are re-aquascaping, pulling a rock to spot treat algae outside of the tank, or for other reasons, there are many reasons to disassemble the aquascape. Sometimes the aquascape can be put back the way it was and other times, either intentionally or unintentionally, it doesn’t look the same after the re-aquascaping is complete. Have you ever had to unstack and restack the aquascape? If so, please tell us about your experience and share any tips that you have in the related discussion thread.

Photo by @Mike&Terry


This QOTD is sponsored by Nutramar: https://www.qualitymarine.com/nutramar/

“Nutramar’s 100% natural food products are used by public aquaria and breeders around the world. They offer superior nutrition to your most finicky and delicate fish and invertebrates.

I have Evil Dr. MegaCrab in the tank. He aquascapes for me.... And then I have to put it back.

Or I buy more corals *gasp* and have to turn my rocks to an area with more holes.

 

[spielco]

I would love to!? But am nervous as all to do this and move the corals off the rocks

 

[Freenow54]

I wish I had never epoxied the rock together that's for sure. Some people even peg them together. You had better make sure you like it first. The biggest priority is leaving enough room behind them for maintenance

 

[enrik_from_vallejo]

Resetting your reef: Have you ever had to unstack and restack the aquascape?

Sometimes you just have to tear it down…or at least take some of the aquascape apart. Whether you are trying to catch a fish or invertebrate, are re-aquascaping, pulling a rock to spot treat algae outside of the tank, or for other reasons, there are many reasons to disassemble the aquascape. Sometimes the aquascape can be put back the way it was and other times, either intentionally or unintentionally, it doesn’t look the same after the re-aquascaping is complete. Have you ever had to unstack and restack the aquascape? If so, please tell us about your experience and share any tips that you have in the related discussion thread.

Photo by @Mike&Terry


This QOTD is sponsored by Nutramar: https://www.qualitymarine.com/nutramar/

“Nutramar’s 100% natural food products are used by public aquaria and breeders around the world. They offer superior nutrition to your most finicky and delicate fish and invertebrates.

My wife tells me I’m never satisfied when it comes to my tank. I’ve reworked, re-glued, added more rocks then removed them. As of this day I plan on doing it again. Just last week I bought a rock from my LFS, a solid pieces with so much character and potential anyway you position it!! I also have a problem with my sand. Dunes in certain areas. I Kinda regret going no sand bed now. I’ve heard if you remove some of the sand it will affect the bio filtration in the tank. Any advise on that?

 

[midgetracer]

I have taken most of my rock and corals out to to catch a fish to put in quarantine!

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

Just did did a deep clean of my tank and did a comple rockscape reset and added a sand bed!

 

[ReefShaQ]

Yep, back on 2005, while living in Florida, we had some really bad (4) hurricanes come through my area....I disassembled my entire tank and took everything with me up north for 2-3 weeks...what an experience, hope I never have to do that again! Everything survived though