Redoing existing rock work

Kathy Floyd · Sep 17, 2023

How bad would it be, or not be, to redo all the rockwork with the existing rock in an established tank?

Some corals would have to be moved. If it's not a problem, what would be the easiest way? Can I take some rock out temporarily during the rearranging stage?

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Sep 17, 2023

Kathy Floyd said:
How bad would it be, or not be, to redo all the rockwork with the existing rock in an established tank?

Some corals would have to be moved. If it's not a problem, what would be the easiest way? Can I take some rock out temporarily during the rearranging stage?

I'm currently considering the same thing. My plan is to do it during a water change and use the old water to hold the rock and coral (in totes or buckets). May be able to add some of the water back depending on how dirty it gets - I'll need to scrub algae off a few.

cilyjr · Sep 17, 2023

Since setting up my first tank 25 years ago, I've done this many times.
The worst part is, you'll break some coral accidentally.

I'll bet there will be several people that will chime in here in a few and tell you why they think it's bad but I've done it so many times with negligible effects.

hexcolor reef · Sep 17, 2023

I just did this last week. Created a more negative space rock work more pleasing to the eye. It also helped me select coral much better

K1utch · Sep 18, 2023

I do it frequently. As long as you don't have the rock submerged 4" in sand It won't be an issue. I have multiple 5g buckets I fill with new salt water mixed to temp and put the rocks in there while I work.

OrchidMiss · Sep 18, 2023

I recently did this in 3 of my 4 tanks... lol
When I was trying to remove all the BTAs from my systems, I had to pull a lot of rock, wasn't a big deal. Just have water ready to go for a good WC afterwards.
The coral and even anemones will be fine out of the water for short periods of time.
All the rock from my 110 came out and I redid the scape completely. Rock was out of the tank for several hours.

907_Reefer · Sep 18, 2023

Having just moved my entire tank twice, this is all good advice here. I would do a water change (from top of column), move rocks/corals to totes with old water (don't even need to completely submerge rocks themselves, but I would submerge corals), put them back in as you please.

Are you stacking the rock?

My only addition would be that I've used mortar such as E-Marco underwater before, while it notes as "safe" to use in-tank, it spiked my Alkalinity really high. I prefer stacking anyway so only did that once