Established Reefer 350 getting a facelift, re-aquascaping the tank

ekandler

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Although this isn’t a full build I thought I’d share my experience redoing a full aquascape in an established reef and share the awesome scape I got from Chandler Rocks.


I’ve had my Red Sea Reefer 350 for a few years now and gone through several iterations of aquascape. I always was satisfied with my designs for a few months and then I’d want to change it up. My designs were never up to the standards I’d see online, so this time I finally decided to pay for a custom aquascape and I couldn’t be happier with it. This is what I had before going for my new scape.

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I ordered this custom aquascape from Chandler Rocks after seeing some of his stuff in friends tanks and seeing his displays at coral shows across the east coast, in particular Reefapalooza NYC. Gave him my dimensions and a few weeks later he had my stuff boxed up ready for me to get at the next show.

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I was afraid of hurting the biological filtration by replacing all of my rocks so I thought up a schedule to cultivate my new rock as best as possible first. I let the new rock soak for 6 weeks, starting with Dr Tims on day 1 and following those instructions. By the start of week 3 it was pulling out ammonia okay, but it could be better, so I ordered Brightwell Microbactr7 and Fritz Turbostart which I added along with some ceramic media that had been curing in my sump for the past year. I watched the rock closely for the next 3 weeks and by week 6 I was adding ammonia daily.

The swap was pretty straightforward, pulled all the coral off, cutting the old rock where I needed to, and smashed up about 50% of my old rock to put in the sump to keep as much of my old bacteria as possible. Hopefully once my new rock has browned nicely and is showing good coral one growth I’ll pull some of the rock from my sump, but we’ll see.

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So far, everything is very happy. No signs of any “new tank” issues, all the coral is showing good polyp extension and my parameters are all normal. Here is a short video close up of the new rock and corals.

thanks for reading and hopefully this is helpful for anyone looking to do the same. If there’s any questions on my methods please let me know!
 
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ekandler

ekandler

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WOW. That looks great!
Thanks! Definitely happy with it. Even with all the overhangs there’s very little that’s shaded. could be because I have 2 XR30s over a 4 ft tank, which will cover a lot of space, but it works great for me.

It’s a very complex rock structure and makes it very interesting to look at, you’re always finding something new. Now I just gotta finish filling it in with coral!
 
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ekandler

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Update on the tank. rock is settling in well, honestly too well. My nutrients have been 0 for a while and trying to get them up. Been feeding more than normal, cut back on skimming and trimmed chaeto and still 0. I’ll keep upping feeding until it’s at acceptable levels. Otherwise corals are looking good and starting to encrust well.

soon after I added the rock I added some new fish: yellow tang, powder blue tang, melanurus wrasse, and a leopard wrasse. I was hoping the new rock would prevent fighting between the new and old fish which worked well.

after a few months I started introducing new corals to the system, added some SPS and a clam. Everything seems to be doing well so far, hopefully it continues. Still want to get some more SPS to fill in the higher rock area.

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