Rock Re-do

Kellsindell

Ok, Here's what i've got now... (FTS this morn)

and i'm not to sure on how i am wanting to do this. I'm asking the oppinion of ya'll and of my Wife.
I'm going to be redoing my rockwork and want to know what people think would be good for a tank my size with the corals i currently have. Cody, Pasfur, SKAustin, Conger and OneFish, i'm look from help directly from ya'll, but all opinions are very welcome. Should i superglue the corals onto the rocks and take them off the pluggs? Should I Separate the rocks and make an Island, oh and i'm going to be adding an anemone to the tank too, so i'm going to need to plan where he's going to dwell... Thanks in advance.

Tank is a Standard 55g 48"l x 12"w x 20"h. I'll get shots of my LR tomorrow or the day after, while the lights are on.

onefish2fish

you can seperate the two piles of rock and have the middle clear or combine them all in the middle and have one large pile. you could stack them going up high along the back,make a big arch, really its preference.
if you remove the frags from plugs it looks more natural but its more permanent for coral placement.

and your not going to pick a spot for the anemone, its going to pick a spot for you.
what kind?

Kellsindell

I am aware of the ways of doing the stacking, but i am not sure what kind of feel i'm going for. I don't want the one piller to rule them all, especially with a nem. It'll walk all over my SPS and that's no bueno.

It'll be a BTA, hopefully green, and i'm setting it up in an area all of it's own and will try to use powerheads to keep it in place (or blow it around). The high flow should discourage it from wondering the tank, and i will have enough lights that it should stay where i want it.

Kellsindell

Unfortunately it's not deeper then what i have already, otherwise i'd do the trench thing that looks so awesome. I know i want 2 stacks, but i don't think i want it cascading and i don't want them to directly come together giving it a 2D feel. I want the 3rd demention to be present. I want fish to be able to swim infron and back of the tank and it not just be a wall of Rock with corals on it. I think i'm going to need some BR too. it'll be at the bottom. I'm on strike i don't want to buy anymore LR.

conger

Just to toss in an idea, but why not two "islands" on each side of the tank as onefish2fish suggested, one more towards the front and one more towards the back. The offset doesn't need to be much, but having them not perfect in-line with each other could look kinda cool. Then, make a little bridge between the two if you've got a suitable piece of LR to do that. That will give something for your fishes to swim under and through.

I personally like to try and keep my rocks at least an inch or so away from all glass sides, so that I can run a magnet scraper over the entire thing and not have spots of dirtiness (but maybe that's because I'm lazy and don't like to manually scrub the glass with a brush or scraper). Plus, it lets the fish swim around a rock structure, and not always be sandwiched between a wall of rock and a wall of glass.

Then again, I don't know the first thing about keeping corals, so I don't know how to safely "store" the corals as you re-arrange your rocks. That'll be up to you and others on here to decide :)

Onefish2fish is right about the anemone though, it will wander where it wants. I think if you give it somewhere with good light, and moderate flow (not constantly blowing its tentacles straight sideways, but enough to give it good motion), that's your best bet. And, if you decided NOT to put a bridge between the two islands, then it's more likely (I think, gotta add that caveat) that it will stay on the island you put it on, especially if the rocks aren't touching the glass. I don't know if a BTA will walk across the gravel, but it probably would walk across the glass.

conger

As you saw in another thread, I had to re-arrange my rocks recently. I decided to do it along with a water change... I filled up a couple of containers of water from the tank, then took out as much of the LR as I could and put it directly in the containers. As you are taking the rocks out and moving them and such, you'll probably be kicking up a lot of stuff from the substrate, so you may need to pause every so often to let it settle so you can see well. But anyways, I personally think it's easier to take everything out, then put them all back in the way you want, as opposed to moving one rock here, then another rock there, etc... with them all still in the tank. You mentioned putting some base rock down, so maybe you were already planning on taking out all of the LR to put the base tock on bottom.

Of course I was looking for a fish and not just re-arranging, but this may still help.

Kellsindell

I like the offset idea. It's kinda what i was throwing up in my mind. I do plan on getting some nice sized base rock and putting it as the base of the formation and then stacking the LR on top.

The nems i do plan on keeping them on an island and yes they will walk across your substrate. i used to have one that wondered the entire tank, climb the glass, let go, fall, climb the glass again, let go, fall and did this over and over. It finally got caught into an impeller and it didn't make it.

aunt kymmie

Nems walk?? I have to go google that. I'd love to find some time lapse photog of that. There's tons of nems alll along the jetties where I surf and they all look and feel like they are permanently attached. I guess they'd have to be with the waves that are constantly crashing on them. When the tide is low they are exposed to the elements (sun!) with barely any water flowing over them. It made me think nems were tough but everything I read here is that they are difficult to keep.

Kells- Looking forward to progress pics!

conger

Yeah, nem's definitely move around to find a spot they like. Once they find a favorite spot, they'll usually stay put, and with their foot they can attach very powerfully to their rock. If you try to remove an anemone who is firmly attached, there's a big risk of ripping or injuring it as it doesn't want to let you. Usually, you have to use a fingernail or old credit card or something, and kind of push at the base of its foot where it attached to the rock (gently, mind you), and work your way around its foot. Eventually, it will let go.

As far as the anemones being exposed to the sun, they require strong lighting (bubble tips have the lowest light requirement, I believe, but still need a lot of light). They also require very clean water (low nitrates and such), so they are sort of like corals in saltwater aquarium as far as requirements, I think. I *think* I read that people in the hobby haven't been keeping anemones for very long (just started 10-20 years ago), so there's not a lot of history, and we as a community are still learning about successful methods of keeping them.

Having said that, anemones in the wild live for 100+ years. Hobbyists are rarely able to keep them longer than a couple of years, some have kept them for 5-10 years. But, considering their "normal" lifespan in the ocean, even keeping an anemone for 10 years is hardly a "success"... it is relative to other hobbyists, but I doubt the anemone would say the same if it could talk.

Kellsindell

i know a guy that's had an anemone for almost 20years now and still going strong. He has had it split over 57times and it's beautiful green with orange tips.