I'll try to keep this short. I have a 14g IM nevo Peninsula. I hate my aquascape. It's my first tank. I went with marco rock, and the rock they sent was massive. i'd have only been able to put two lumps/rocks in and that's it. I broke one up, tried to make an arch/donut but it doesn't look great and my fish don't use it in a way i'd like to see. My hermit crbas just hang upside down on it. I also made two janky stacks of rock using flat shelf bits that at the time, i thought "these will be nice when I get corals" My inverts dont enjoy having to climb them to forage and they honestly crows the middle row (if you do the 3x3 grid rule for aquascaping) and nothing else. And through feeding I've noticed a lot of dead flow pockets.
I wanna start over. The tank is 8 weeks old. young, I know. It has WAY too much cuc - 10 scarlets, 10 blue leg, 10 nassarius and 9 astrea - THis is due in error to Dr. Reefs that sent me 10 of everything when i only ordered 6 very very small crabs, and 8 snails. I have had issues keeping them all fed and frankly I've decided to ask an LFS if they want them free of charge or for very little credit. I just can't keep them at this rate as it's putting a lot of waste into my small system.
The question is this. I will not do this unless it can be safely done at all. I will not risk the life of my livestock being picky about the visuals. But I also want a habitat for them to thrive, and this aint that. I've been looking into the Nano LifeRock kit from CaribSea. It includes two semi long "arch" type pieces, and 4-5 palm sized rocks equalling 10 pounds I could stack to make something a lot more natural looking and maybe have a little one for a GSP island later on. Honestly I wish i had done this from the start as I have wasted more than it would have cost me to do this trying to create something by hand, which I ended up enjoying less than I thought I would.
LifeRock is said to come with bacteria seeding inside suspended in dormancy to jumpstart a cycle. Can I "cook" the 10 pound kit of liferock in a 5 gallon bucket with some Microbacter7 or fritz or whatever else one might use, with a heater and a pump to keep it circulating for about a month or so and then just removed the frankly less than 10 pounds I have now and put the LifeRock in.
I also have plenty of bio media in a back chamber. Maxspect ceramic balls advertised to equal 10 balls to 20 lbs of rock. I have about 25 in the rear chambers. Some will be coming out to make room for a new Skimmer, but that'll be done slowly as well and is a completely separate venture.
Man.. I really did not keep this short..
I wanna start over. The tank is 8 weeks old. young, I know. It has WAY too much cuc - 10 scarlets, 10 blue leg, 10 nassarius and 9 astrea - THis is due in error to Dr. Reefs that sent me 10 of everything when i only ordered 6 very very small crabs, and 8 snails. I have had issues keeping them all fed and frankly I've decided to ask an LFS if they want them free of charge or for very little credit. I just can't keep them at this rate as it's putting a lot of waste into my small system.
The question is this. I will not do this unless it can be safely done at all. I will not risk the life of my livestock being picky about the visuals. But I also want a habitat for them to thrive, and this aint that. I've been looking into the Nano LifeRock kit from CaribSea. It includes two semi long "arch" type pieces, and 4-5 palm sized rocks equalling 10 pounds I could stack to make something a lot more natural looking and maybe have a little one for a GSP island later on. Honestly I wish i had done this from the start as I have wasted more than it would have cost me to do this trying to create something by hand, which I ended up enjoying less than I thought I would.
LifeRock is said to come with bacteria seeding inside suspended in dormancy to jumpstart a cycle. Can I "cook" the 10 pound kit of liferock in a 5 gallon bucket with some Microbacter7 or fritz or whatever else one might use, with a heater and a pump to keep it circulating for about a month or so and then just removed the frankly less than 10 pounds I have now and put the LifeRock in.
I also have plenty of bio media in a back chamber. Maxspect ceramic balls advertised to equal 10 balls to 20 lbs of rock. I have about 25 in the rear chambers. Some will be coming out to make room for a new Skimmer, but that'll be done slowly as well and is a completely separate venture.
Man.. I really did not keep this short..