Moving rocks- what will happen?

[GPCRalph]

Hi,
I was thinking of taking out and reorganizing the rock work of my 75 gal tank. The rock has been set for over a year but I feel like rearranging it. Is there a way to avoid a detrimental water quality spike? Would this make it not worthwhile to change around the rocks? let me know what your experiences are with changing around established tanks.
Thanks
Ralph

 

[oranje]

As long as the liverock isn't out of water for too long (i.e. more than a few minutes), there shouldn't be too much die-off on the rocks. As for stirring up the sandbed, I'd be cautious about that.

I don't think that you have too much to worry about. Also, if you perform a water change in the following days, that would probably help with any ill effects which might pop up.

 

[Anonymous]

should not be a problem(agree about the sand bed).it may also be a good oppurtunity to clean the rock abit(don't know if yours are too big to do this, or what you've got attached to 'em)but if you can,(shut your pumps off first) lift 'em slowly out of the tank-to avoid getting alot of the fine munge released into the tank- and swish 'em gently in a large bucket containing water from the tank(baste 'em- you can also use a soft toothbrush, just be careful w/polyps, etc.)when you're done-dump the bucket's water, and do a small change.smaller corals shouldn't mind this at all(advise against lifting rock w/larger softs-they may tear on the rock)
three birds w/one stone

 

[Reefguide]

Shouldn't be a prob I agree... What is a problem for me always is that when i do rearrange my rock, It never look as nice as it was before I messed with it. Then I need to pull out pics of previous set-up to try to get back to how it was before... Man, that really pisses me off... I always end up wishing I had never touched the original set-up !! Funny but true.

 

[GPCRalph]

thanks for your input
hey reefguide, that's pretty funny cause I was thinking about the same thing happening to me.

 

[Reefguide]

It gets me every time !!

 

[Sea Serpent]

I just rearranged my rocks last weekend. I was really careful not to disturb the 6" DSB so I left the "bottom layer" alone. I am happy with the new aquascaping, but was very NERVOUS until I could take an accurate headcount of all crabs, shrimp, serpent stars, urchins, etc. One thing that was surprising was that the bristle worms were kind of upset - - - there was a massive spawning of at least 10 bristle worms at once immediately following the rearragement. The whole tank was milky white for about 30 minutes. Really spooky. If you have a lot of bristle worms, you might want to wear gloves.
Good luck - there's nothing like a little tank overhaul to get rejuvenated. It's also a good time to check the PHs and probes.
Sea Serpent

 

[berkeleyfishboi]

I just moved my tank from a 40 to a 60 and transferred all my LS. What you can do if the sand bed does get all stirred up and the water gets cloudy is you can take a fluval or some sort of canister filter and hook it up to the tank. My fluval 403 cleared up the water in like 2 hours. I hope this helps.