Should I redo part of my aquascape?

[laguest]

Hi all,

The tank is about 3yrs old and its our first one. We can never seem to find a good location for corals on the large rock on the left side.
When we built this we had high hopes to put SPS on it, but we are still learning with soft and LPS and don't think we have the time or $$ to take on SPS right now.

The rocks are held together with Instant Ocean HoldFast Epoxy in a few places. I am wondering if its a good idea to try and break the bond on the large rock on the left side, take it out and bust the top part off with a hammer and chisel. Maybe try and flatten it out some so we have more options to place coral on it.

Or, is that risky and can upset the tank, its looking pretty good right now.
Or, does anyone see that rock as a nice place to put coral, and if so what type? Its kind of like a wall

Thanks

 

[commonstranger]

Trust me, this stuff is hardier than you think. Bust that thing apart restructure the aquascaping the way you want and carry on ! (thumbs up )

 

[mfinn]

Taking one rock off the top isn't going to harm anything IMO.
I have done exactly what you want to do on many occasions.
You will find you will stir up some trapped detritus, so maybe have a water change ready afterwards.

Another thought, check to see if anyone has any pest free smaller rock that you could possibly trade for.
Maybe some smaller rock and a coral frag?

Be firm on the pest free.

 

[Cameron A]

It looks like your hammer is doing alright in about the same amount of lighting so if you didn’t want to mess with it other lps specifically euphyllia would be a good option for that piece of rock.

 

[Cari]

I like that rock Looks very healthy and appears to have plenty of nooks and crannies for frag plugs. Are the frag plugs too big?

I think your tank overall looks healthy! You are also wise to give that gsp it’s own island. The hammer looks happy. +1 on more euphyllia for that rock! (I love hammer, frogspawn and torch )

If you’re set on taking it out, you can certainly do that. I would agree to have a water change ready. You might be surprised how much detritus is released into the water column. Whenever I change things around or in/out of my tank, I throw an extract air stone in. I don’t know if it really makes a difference, but gives me peace of mind that I’m helping to keep animals from getting too stressed.

Good luck