re-aquascaping

My big project this weekend is redoing our rock work. We got some more live rock a while back and it has been sitting in the back of our tank making it look cluttered now for a couple of weeks. So, I'm going to attempt to tear everything down and start over. It's going to be tricky with stuff growing everywhere.

We currently have it strategicly placed down the center of our tank. One long ledge with tunnels through here and there. I'd like to make more room on the sand for the brain that's coming at the mext meeting. However, I need to leave room to scrape the back of the tank since it's viewable from all sides unless I want to see corraline algae every time I come up our stairs.

I was thinking of just stacking three islands in the tank but just not totally sure. How happy are you guys that stacked it up against the back wall? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

i always stack it up from the front to back...i leave a few inches in the front for brains and then make it angle up to the back and i like the way it looks?

I never thought of doing that. I bet it's makes for a lot of coral placement options. I wonder if I have enough rock for that?

hey blennieluvr i am selling all my rock if you want it...i have around 125-150 lbs alljammed in a 75 gallon...if your looking

You could also drill it and put rods in there like I did then you can basicly do what ever you want to do.

Garrett, would we be able to do that with corals growing on them do you think? It sure does open up the design options.

You should be able to. You would have to take the rock out of the tank to drill it, the coral would get pretty mad but as long as they are not out of the water for more than a few min. they should be fine IMO. We take them out to frag then and sometimes that takes a few min.

I have rock up against my back glass and Don't like it one bit, for one you have pressure points sitting on that glass and if you ever have a rock slide it would be like hitting your glass with a ball ping hammer.
Rodding your rock like garrett mentioned is best IMO you can keep it off your glass and shape it anyway you want. and you can get those long bits and drill your rock right in your water.not in your tank but in a bucket.

Thanks guys. We're going to give drilling the rock a shot I think. I'm sure it will give the most satisfying results. It won't be the first time I've made my corals mad although I do believe in leaving them alone as much as possible.

This did not go well. I got everything out and then could not see a darned thing so basicly stacked it all up and turned all the equipment back on. I need another heater to keep my corals warm while working in the tank.

I have used zip ties with good success. I have also used epoxy to glue small rocks. It was much easier for me than using rods and also permitted me to do arches and caves easily.
Hope that helps.
Vishnu

Good point Vishnu. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. We're feeling a lot better about it now though. The end result is taller rock work, the ability to still clean all the way around, a nice spot for the brain and larger colonies of the softies that spread like crazy. We tried to isolate those a bit more too.

I'll still move a few things around but think I'm going to let everything settle down a bit first. And, going to do a w/c very soon.

Great. Cant wait to see things in person next week. I assume there is a tank tour organized for the meeting!
Vishnu

We're a little more spread out than you guys were geographically. I think the plan is to see Brett Cooper's tank after Garrett's. He lives probably about in the middle of Garrett and I. With the meal, meeting, frag swapping and seeing those two tanks, I think we're going to be busy already.

However, anyone is welcome to come to our place afterward. Be forwarned, we live 20 miles from Garrett though. And, we're NE so it's the wrong direction from a lot of folks. From Cooper's place, it's maybe 10 miles?

We can host a meeting at our place down the road or something too.