If i rescaped how bad will it affect the tank?

So basically I just put on my new Corallife Super Skimmer 65 on my 40 acrylic tank. The pump is so big it is the main focus in the tank. Lets say down the road I made a DIY box the height of the tank (black to match the background of the tank). I would have this box cover the pump from resting on the sand bed all the way to the top of the water column. It would hide the pump and from there on, I would rescape the rocks around this box and make sort of a island affect on the left half of the tank (where the pump is) and a small island in the right corner of the tank.

What do you think about this?

It makes me wonder if I were to drill into my existing live rock will its out of the water, put pvc rods in to create the "island" and put it back in the tank, how badly would this affect the system? Seems like i would have die off in addition to the internal parts of the rock drilled and exposed now.

 

As long as you keep the rock wet you should have very little die off. I redid my scape by drillig the rock after the tank cycled with no ill effects. Just keep it submerged in a five gallon bucket until you get to where your going to drill to minimize the out of water period. Rinse off after you drill and replace in tank as soon as possible.

 

my concern is tho, its going to take time to figure out how to orient the rocks to achieve the desired island effect? Maybe I should just take some time and look at the rocks while they are in the tank to figure out a setup prior to doing this????

 

Anthos

as long as they stay damp your would be fine IME
They dont need to be under water, just dont let them get bone dry

if your worried - use one of those demisters they sell for watering plants (new one)
then you can periodically spray the rock with saltwater whilst its awaiting drilling etc

you will have some die off for certain, but as there will still be an active colony of bacteria on every surface left in the tank, it will not take long for the bacteria lost to be compensated for IME

Steve

 

so there wont be any like internal nitrates or ammonia inside hte rock that drilling releases it? Btw, my name is steve also. haha.

 

Hello Steve
May be some trapped phosphate held in the rock, but that was going to be there and fuel any algae that grows there anyway so dont worry about it IMO

give the rock a really good rinse once you have drilled it to get rid of any fines from the drilling that will float about and irritate you for a while until they settle

Steve

 

this is all great advice..im just gonna say that i redid everything in my tank a few days ago and i took a little bucket and kept some old tank water in it with the live rock, that way after you have drilled you can rinse it like stated earlier and then start putting it back in the display tank, that will also cut down on some of the time it will out of water..but i had no change in water params when i changed out everything, i would say the rocks were never out of water more than 10 minutes and that on the exaggerated side..