Aquascape in a tank full of water

[zhangster]

Hello. I recently took over someone's 200-gal reef tank. It has been placed in my office lobby. Previously I had a 20-gal nano for a year so I have some limited experience.

The rock works in the new-to-me tank were completely disassembled in the moving process. The tank is running well and all livestock are doing OK. But I need to re-aquascape in an existing tank full of water.

I just ordered a tube of coral gum from BRS. Any advice? Thanks.

 

[smilet98]

I'd say lay it out; measure your tank
And start creating a base layout so when your ready you can just let the rocks do the work for the clay,
It takes some people a few mins to hours others can scape a tank for days!
Good luck!
Might wanna check out how inappropriate reefer did it with a sword of bond, I'd say it's the best way to do it considering you don't want your tank to be a office nightmare if it the rock work falls over (knock on wood)
But I used the tube as well but I'm only have a 33 gallon,
Lastly if you plan on adding sand I'd suggest putting a egg crate on the bottom of the tank so no sand sifting fish/inverts drop your rocks!
Goodluck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Don't forget to remove some water to allow the rocks to displace some of it. Bring towels!

 

[cvrle1]

If that rock has been sitting outside and dry, you will most likely have to deal with cycle. If there was a lot of life on those rocks and now they are dead, you will get a spike in Phosphates as well.

As mentioned, aquascape can take weeks if you want to. What you have today, you may hate tomorrow, so take your time to create scape that you really do like and will not regret in few weeks.

I would personally not put egg crate at the bottom as it can act as detritus trap down the road. Instead you use acrylic sheets and fix rocks to them if you really want to go this way. It is not mandatory if your rock work is solid.

Finally, in perfect world you would put rocks then sand in, so that rocks dont move around when sand does.

 

[zhangster]

Thanks everyone! Super helpful