Debating on starting over...

So this is my 110 high as of now. I have really enjoyed getting this tank to where it is but after doing all of this, iv learned what I really want out of this tank. Aquascape vision has definitely changed. Never put to much thought into it before but the aqua scape I have now drives me nuts. Here are a view questions. Do you guys suggest I build up an aqua scape outside the tank? After selling all my coral minus a few frags of each, drop the new aqua scape in? Should I replace sand at this point since I'm already getting rid of all the rock? What is the best situation for the fish. I do not have a QT or any other tank to have them held in during the transition. Is this a nightmare? Should I not bother? Thanks for y'all's input

 

Yeah you better tear down the god awful tank asap.

Seriously is fantastic right now, but I understand you now have a different vision. I do the same thing all the time.

How long has the tank been set up? Why do you want to change out the sand?

You will need large plastic storage containers the kind you can get a Walmart, and rinse them good. I would definitely build the scape outside of the tank, glue it or wire it or epoxy it just the way you want it. You can either cycle it in one of the storage containers or since you will have do corals you can add it to the tank directly. Personally I would cycle it.

I would siphon the water into a container, and move over the fish, they should be easier to catch without so much water. Make sure they are not exposed to extremes in temp and provide them with some flow/O2 source.

How you proceed next will depend on the reason or the desire to switch out the sand.

 

What do you mean by starting over?? I'm new, so take my advice and thoughts with a grain of salt. Keep some of your rock and all of your sand if it's healthy to seed your new rock. Medium sized pieces of rock (baseball-softball) shape better. Sell/break apart/frag what you have to give you more of a blank canvas to grow into. Get some livestock that moves, get contrasting colors as well...acans, favias, leptastrea, mushrooms all will add contrast and texture..torches, hammers, frogspawns (remember there are more than green/purple ones of these species), just like there are other cloves other than a GSP.. You could get some nice macro algae.

I don't know what you meant by start over, but I see lots of room to have some bad ass livestock in that tank.

 

Woah! Im pretty sure buying some dry rock and incorporating it into what you already have would be fantastic. I personally would adopt your tank as is but hey, to each his own.

 

Thanks for the quick replies and suggestions! Well I do appreciate the compliments but the MAIN if not only reason is a different vision. I have a lot of bulky rock and vision more tunnels with smaller rocks built up together. Adding new aqua scape might not be a bad idea either. Here on some other reasons....this live rock is pretty darn old. I got it out of a WELL established 180 gallon reef tank and I fear what is in them. One incident was recently I realized how much crap is caked on these rocks. So in my next water change, I blasted ONE rock with a powerhead. It was horrible! Tank was a mess and within a two days, mult fish had ick. I made it through but did loose two fish. The other rocks have more stuff built up on them than the one I originally attempted to clean. That is really it when it comes to the rock. As for the sand, I have had it in this tank for over a year but was in army other 55 reef for two years prior to adding it to this one? Not sure if that's a big issue or not...

Thanks again guys!

 

Most definitely an issue, while not a deep sand bed it's has been running long enough to have the potential to cause major problems if you disturb it without removing all the water and then rinsing the tank well prior to introduction of new sand, scape and live stock.

If you do not change it out disturb it as little as possible. If you want to change it out, I would remove all the water and then use a bowl to shovel it out. If you do remove the sand bed and the rocks you're removing the biggest part of your bacterial/biological filter so in that instance I would thoroughly cycle your new rock structure prior to placement in the tank.

 

FWIW, I think what you have now is really nice. I think benbacock made a good suggestion, to possibly incorporate some new rock or additional rock into your current scape. I wish I lived by you so I could buy your coral, you have such great pieces in there.

How long has the tank been set up? I don't think you need to get new sand, you can just rinse what you have really good and seed the bed with a cup of your current sand. It will certainly be a lot of work, I can attest to that. If you really want a new scape, you could build it outside of the tank and epoxy it like Corailline said but I think you should cycle it before adding to the existing tank.

What are you ultimately going for in terms of your tank?

 

Sorry, I typed my response before your last one. I understand what you're saying now.

 

So far, here are my thoughts. Remove the rock very carefully and clean off all the "cake buildup" from the rocks one by one, placing the "cleaned rock" into rubber made bins with some tank water/freshly made water. I think there are a few minor changes that I could make that would allow adding new cured rock to this aqua scape a tax but easier. My issue with adding new rock is that the rocks in now, as stated before, are rather large. Adding any neat aqua scape above will almost certainly cause some shaded areas to the corals below. Do I think it'll be enough to hinder the zoa gardens, I doubt it but still... Any threads or videos y'all suggest on how to aqua scape? It'll be my first time but I want to do it myself, not have someone build for me

 

A hammer and a chisel goes a long way in terms of re-scaping..

Step 1, pressure wash. Step 2, bleach. Step 3, muriatic acid. Step 4, RO/DI soak. You now have clean dead rock. Google "rock reincarnation beyond cooking"...

Shoot, now I'm worried about my rocks since they came from an already well established display.. I mean I think my cycle was 5 days and that was just me being cautious I never had/have had a spike in anything.