Live rock out of water?

[JasTheReefer]

I started up my first reef tank about 6-7 months ago, and since then I have ultimately decided I want to actually aquascape it, considering I just tossed and stacked rocks together excited to be able to get fish soon. Well I recently purchased another 40 pounds of dry rock but my question is how long can I have my live current rock out of the water to reaquascape with either rods or glue? Or any general tips on the best way to go about this.

 

[JasTheReefer]

I do plan on taking out half the sand (I siphon it weekly with my water changes) and replacing it with a finer sand instead of my crushed coral. I currently have half crushed coral half sand.

 

[JasTheReefer]

I have read quite a bit and just can’t decide on the best way to do this! I plan on moving a piece of rock and my fish and corals to a 10g while I work on my display tank. I’m thinking just stacking the rock work securely like I did before just having more rock to have more options while doing so. Maybe gluing underwater some of the pieces for extra stability. Just looking for tips. Is there a better way? What if I decided to break a piece of my live rock in half, how much time would I have to do so? Will all the bacteria die? Am I risking a mini cycle?

 

[Squidz]

By no means am I an expert. But it was my understanding you can have your LR out for less then 24 hours. After that you risk killing bacteria?
When I did my aquascape on my established tank I had the LR out for maybe an hour, and I put the LR in buckets with tank water. I was mostly going for stability, and I used acrylic dowels, drilled and rinsed with RO water, and did a big water change. I didn't use any glue. I didn't have issues other then stressing out the fish and corals like crazy. Personally I'm not sure I would do that to the fish again.. happy fish fight off parasites. Unhappy fish don't.
But I think something to look out for is spiking your ammonia and nitrates while removing the sand?

 

[JasTheReefer]

By no means am I an expert. But it was my understanding you can have your LR out for less then 24 hours. After that you risk killing bacteria?
When I did my aquascape on my established tank I had the LR out for maybe an hour, and I put the LR in buckets with tank water. I was mostly going for stability, and I used acrylic dowels, drilled and rinsed with RO water, and did a big water change. I didn't use any glue. I didn't have issues other then stressing out the fish and corals like crazy. Personally I'm not sure I would do that to the fish again.. happy fish fight off parasites. Unhappy fish don't.
But I think something to look out for is spiking your ammonia and nitrates while removing the sand?

Yeah I plan on doing at least a 50% water change, and I am pretty nervous about that. Do you think replacing all the sand would be better than replacing half? I’d rather not lose the bacteria that’s in the sand but I don’t want to kill my fish either. I shouldn’t stress the fish too much bc I plan on removing them and taking them to a different tank temporarily. I think I’m going to just stack them as securely as I can and play with the aquascape in the tank, and then when I’m ready for drilling holes for the rods in this case I could just pull out one at a time n I could restock them on the rod in the tank. Would be messy and I’ll likely get drenched in water but I think it would minimize the amount of bacteria loss right? I can’t imagine the rock not having significant die off in even an hour.

 

[JasTheReefer]

I have 2 clown fish, a engineer goby (he’s still pretty small) a two spot tang and a Melanurus wrasse along with my Esther died off clean up crew I plan on restocking after the change.

 

[Grumblez]

I have read quite a bit and just can’t decide on the best way to do this! I plan on moving a piece of rock and my fish and corals to a 10g while I work on my display tank. I’m thinking just stacking the rock work securely like I did before just having more rock to have more options while doing so. Maybe gluing underwater some of the pieces for extra stability. Just looking for tips. Is there a better way? What if I decided to break a piece of my live rock in half, how much time would I have to do so? Will all the bacteria die? Am I risking a mini cycle?

Adding lots of new dry rock a "mini-cycle" is probably unavoidable. Not like ammonia and nitrite just the process off the new biofilm establishing on the new dry rock etc.

I wouldn't worry about your fish whatever you decide to do, just the bacteria from one decent sized rock or your substrate or your filter will be sufficient.

 

[JasTheReefer]

Adding lots of new dry rock a "mini-cycle" is probably unavoidable. Not like ammonia and nitrite just the process off the new biofilm establishing on the new dry rock etc.

I wouldn't worry about your fish whatever you decide to do, just the bacteria from one decent sized rock or your substrate or your filter will be sufficient.

I know I’ll end up with diatoms n such again, they come and go anyway I’ve learned to face the algae’s as they come. Rn I’m almost done fighting with gha. Once that’s done I plan on moving everything. Do you think I should replace the sand or only half like i plan?

 

[James_O]

You can have it out for enough time to re do your scape.

If you still have concerns, you can get some wet paper towels (use RO water to get them wet) and drape them over the rocks to keep them wet.

 

[JasTheReefer]

You can have it out for enough time to re do your scape.

If you still have concerns, you can get some wet paper towels (use RO water to get them wet) and drape them over the rocks to keep them wet.

You don’t think I’ll have significant die off? I’d like to keep reaquascaping from causing too much harm to the life in the tank. I don’t want it to mess anything up to bad, what do you think about the sand bed? Should I replace it in your opinion? The tank was fully cycled on March 19 and has had fish since. I do clean the bed regularly but it does get pretty gross sometimes.

 

[James_O]

You don’t think I’ll have significant die off? I’d like to keep reaquascaping from causing too much harm to the life in the tank. I don’t want it to mess anything up to bad, what do you think about the sand bed? Should I replace it in your opinion? The tank was fully cycled on March 19 and has had fish since. I do clean the bed regularly but it does get pretty gross sometimes.

Not if you keep the rock moist.

What does the sand look like? You can take all of it out, rinse it, and then add it back in the tank.

 

[JasTheReefer]

Not if you keep the rock moist.

What does the sand look like? You can take all of it out, rinse it, and then add it back in the tank.

Sand looks okay from the top, on the glass in between sand is some green algae I plan on scrubbing tomorrow with my water change. Some of the crushed coral has algae I know I’m gonna remove some of the crushed coral bc algae sticks around it to bad. Mainly on the deeper parts of the sand bed does it look kinda nasty but I’ve always messed with it every water change, some parts come up with brown crap other parts don’t. I have nassarius snails and I used to have a diamond goby who sadly passed away, now my engineer goby is constantly moving sand around. I’d say it gets decent movement could definitely use more snails though. I do eventually want to get a starfish to help and a conch. Currently I’m focusing on this algae battle and just coming up with a plan for reaquascape before I add a crap load of cuc.