The next step was to move the rocks from the middle section of the 220 to the 400. There was practically no shelf rock in the 220, so the live rock was to be used as the pillars for all the shelf rock. I did not want to risk losing too much of the bacteria necessary for the nitrification process, so I placed it directly into the 400 and worked with it in there. The whole aquascape process would have been much easier if I had taken all the live rock and laid it out to pick and choose. Instead I had to trial and error most of the aquascape until I got it to a point that I was happy.
Here is the 220 after the second batch of rocks was moved from the centre of the tank:
Yes, the tank needed serious cleaning IF it was to remain the DT. But it was not, so I didn't bother. The fish were very confused now that 2/3 of their house had disappeared. I was a little worried about aggression issues with the added stress, but they actually behaved very well.
The corals from that 2/3 were scattered between the 220 and the 400. The 440 did not have enough shelf space for them all, and I could not use the sand bed in the 400 because I needed that as work space. I still had all 3 MHs over the 220g, so I used the egg crate and the sand for corals.
I then built the left side structure:
First, those 4 small rocks at the very top and the pizza slice in the centre lower 3rd did not stay. The top shelf is the 23 x 24 piece that I felt is one of the nicest rocks I have and deserved the king's seat. The 26 x 14 was place to the right centre of the picture.
After the structure was complete, I moved most of the remaining corals from the corals from the 220. I left some there because I again did not have enough space for all of them yet.
The only thing I am not fully happy with is the downward sloping rock in the centre. This one was difficult to place because of it's shape, but it will be less noticeable down the road as corals grow out to hide it. After this shelf was created, I moved on of the MH from the 220g to the 400. I had corals on both ends of the 400, but only one MH on the right. I put the MH in the second position of the planned 4 because it is harder to reach than the first position MH. This is why the light is more intense on the left side of the picture.
The MH move was easier than I had hoped. I am going from a Lumenbright mini to a Lumenbright large. Fortunately, the mogul socket assembly was identical for both pendants. I merely removed the socket assembly and transferred it with the ballast attached to the large pendant. I was worried that the socket lengths would be different to allow proper alignment to the centre of the pendant. If that was the case, I would have to rewire the ballast to the new pendant. Fortunately, that was not necessary.
