Established reef re-scape, is it possible?

[jcbasile]

A tale as old as time (or at least reef tanks). I setup my scape so it looks good with the rock work bare, without thinking too much about coral growth. This was my first reef tank and being a planted freshwater guy before, I struggled with the aquascaping. The tank is about 9 months old and everything is growing well/happy. I have two questions:

1) Is it possible to re-do the aquascape without killing everything in my tank and harming the corals/fish?
2) I have some bubble algae and vermetid snails so if I replaced the rocks completely would I basically need to start my cycle all over again or is most beneficial bacteria in the sand bed?

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[PanchoG]

Yes, you can change your aquascape. You can avoid coral damage if they are small, if you have some big colonies, then you will realize we all have fat fingers. ;Cow

 

[reefinatl]

Totally possible, some guy in Oregon with a wicked sps reef, shame I can't recall his name, effectively tears his down almost annually to trim rearrange and regrow.

 

[brandon429]

Build Thread - Cook's 105 Planet Aquariums Crystaline Reef - 48x20

Thanks for the information it a good summary for reference without having to read through the big post. I couldn't read you replies though, I was too busy taking the tank apart. :) I didn't just go for it first thing, I had tested the GHA removal method several months with good results. The...

www.reef2reef.com

Thought it might help to see Cook's recent work, that's a lot of money on the line he re-scaped.

Id recommend keeping your rocks and beating valonia, changing them out brings dinos most likely, and more v since its selected clearly in your frags/hardscapes options.

vibrant is the best doser avail for that, and I rarely recommend water dosers. handy step by step total disassembly/reassembly above of a nice mixed reef though.

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

I change my aquascape around pretty much yearly. I don't have a lot of corals and until recently, none were glued down. If you can use all the same rock, you should have no issues. If I add any dry rock, I end up with either dinos or diatoms. If you can, cycle any rock you're planning to add ahead of time.

 

[billyocean]

If you completely change the rock you will have a cycle for new rock unless you pre-cycle/seed the new rock beforehand. If using the same rock but rearrange it, I would recommend using a turkey baster for a water change or two to clean out the nooks and crannies to limit the detritus you will stir up during the rearrangement. Vacuum sand etc..wouldn't worry about vermitids..they are inevitable.

 

[Dom]

There are legitimate reasons to rework your rockscape. It is often used as a means of dealing with territorial aggression when adding a new fish to a display.

By changing the rock work, landmarks established by inhabitants used to mark their territory get moved, causing all inhabitants to re-establish territory using new landmarks.

But if everything is happy and healthy, I would suggest not fixing something that isn't broken.

Understand that if your corals are thriving with the tank as is, they are happy with the light and flow their position in the tank provides. Moving things around may result in moving corals to an area that isn't suiting their needs, causing them to to deteriorate.

I would recommending not touching things and continue to enjoy a thriving as is.

 

[Paul B]

Yes, in a tank that young you can do anything you want and not harm anything.
3 years ago I moved to this new house and had to put everything in my tank in vats for the hour ride here. The tank was set up for 40 years in that location so I had to break all the SPS that was growing on the rocks.

I also run a reverse undergravel filter which of course had to be removed and moved without killing to much bacteria.

It broke my heart but when I re set it up here, I just glued everything back and tried to find the tiny pieces of fragile montipora corals and glue them in.

I didn't lose anything but the montipora is no where near as large as it was and probably never will be. But most of the other corals seemed to like the change and thrived and grew into different shapes.