Redoing my rockwork. Any pointers?

So I have about 150lbs of live rock. I want to take out about a third to open up my tank a bit. One side does not get much viewing so I thought about stacking that corner up to the glass? I'm doing some type of arch/swin through shelfy type thing on the other side.

I was going to try and drill and rod my stuff. Take out the coral and put in a tote. Get my rocks drilled and positioned, put the coral back in, do a water change and filter.

Any time limit I should try to stay under? I could do one side then the other, but want to minimize stress.

Hopefully I will line up a buyer for the live rock I take out.

Any advice?

 

i had the same question in mind for my 90 gal. im around the 120 pounds of LR range. would stacking the LR against the glass put too much pressure on the glass?

 

As long as you make sure that the rock is secured and that you're ok with not cleaning the glass, then go for it!

 

Moving rock

Try and not disturbing the sand too much. should be ok

 

I have rearranged my rock several times, not on that scale. What I did was setup my 10gal. tank I have laying around and filled that with water and heated. I put the rocks I took out into that tank while I rearranged the rocks in the tank, then took them out as I needed them. They can stay out of water for a while, just make sure that stay wet. Have lots of towels ready too.

 

Ah and be sure to remember that by exposing parts of the rock that were not exposed to water, you will run the risk of a mini cycle.

 

Any pics. If we saw you current aquascape we give some more detailed advise.

 

I just had my new 210g aquascaped by a pro. Maybe you can steal some ideas. Good luck! There is an art to it. Brian Tuttle from Coral Seas Pets in Ft. Lauderdale spent over an hour setting it up. He had all the rock in view laying in tupperwares and on towels and just had me and his helper hand it to him. I added in my own ideas and it came out great. The way he used two basic rocks and balanced a flatter piece on top (sometimes he would switch to another rock because of size) and worked his way up the back of the tank at an angle that left a stairway effect is the key. It allows all kinds of places for corals and gives a great multiple caves look. Check it out.

 

Dang, that DOES look good. So much real estate for corals AND so many hidey-holes for fish.

Very, very nice.

 

Here is mine:



It is just so "full". So... the right side is not viewed much. Sort of against a wall. The Overflow box being where it is. I'm sort of envisioning stacking up the right side corner. On the glass to save space. Concave from left to right, and top to bottom. Then some sort of projection arch shelf type thing going out and around to the other side of the overflow. The left side of the tank being open.

I have plenty of space to move stuff. I'm going to take all my stuff out of my sump and keep my corals in there for the day. Got totes for the rock and a buy lined up for the left overs. I had a very minor cycle when I moved the tank so I am not expecting much of one with this.

I know the water is going to be very dirty. It will be a challenge getting what I want without being able to see through it well.