Removing live rock from a mature system

[BrentH]

I have a 500 gall it's about 2 years old when I first set up I put a rediculous amount of rock basically a mountain ... I would like to thin it put what's the safest way if there is one to do this I can put some of it in the sump but not all or should I do a piece a week or every few day.? Or just leave it ....I've been getting a lot of build up in between

[bertoni]

If the tank has more live rock than it needs for filtration, then you should be able to remove it a bit at a time. I probably wouldn't remove more than 5% at any one time, to pick a fairly random limit. We'd need to know more about the stocking and the amount of live rock to say much, though.

[BrentH]

It's 700 gallons volume it full of sps and I have a lot of fish like 30 I'll post a pic I would like to bring all the rock work down lower

[BrentH]

.... I don't really want to remove a lot just a few that actually have corals I don't want on them ..and move some to sump. I have a few monti that r kinda taking over along with a efflo that's trying to dominant and is ugly I have a 240 system that I can use to hold or put rock in there's about 30 med sized fish in there I have a high bio load for sure

[Jpugh73]

Man that looks like a big project, beautiful tank by the way.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How do you get it to stand up like that?


:D

[BrentH]

Sorry about the pic I'll do better when I get home

[Psyops]

I would be too chicken to touch anything in that beautiful setup of yours. Good luck.

[BrentH]

Thanks ya I'm afraid if I pull a rock out I'll get some crazy no3 spike or p04 or something but I'm actually having some issues with that anyway ughh

[BrentH]

Here's another pic

[BrentH]

Damn .it's upside down now

[Bilk]

Damn .it's upside down now

LOL that's OK. I downloaded and rotated it so I could see your beautiful tank :) First pic is better :)

[BrentH]

Try one last time

[bertoni]

That is a nice tank! I'm fairly sure you could take out a few pieces of live rock with no ammonia spike. A nitrate buildup over time might be possible, but I personally wouldn't worry much.

[BrentH]

Thank u

[Reefer54]

If you can blow the buildup off ans siphon it right away, that would be the sure-fire way to avoid spikes, but i am almost willing to bet you have enough going on to consume the disturbed nutrients.

great looking tank!!

[tmz]

I've thinned out live rock in some of my displays,a portion at a time . Just be sure to siphon as much built up detritius as you can . Running afilter sock on the drain during the process and blowing off the corals in the tank after are helpful.

I'd probably use the rock after removing any corals in a crpytic refugium; as simple as plumbing in a brute trash can.

[BrentH]

I like the cryptic refuge idea I am a little limited on space but I can put about 100lb of live rock in my sump and it will be dark I have my lighted refugium down there as we'll but sectionsd off thanks

[Psyops]

Good luck Brent. I understand from the pics why you want to thin it out a bit. Great looking system though.

Alex

[tmz]

You are welcome. Good luck.

[BrentH]

I open up the middle tank seems to be doing okay I'll post some pics in a little while i'm excited

[rale2001]

That tank is awesome

[atrox]

Man spectacular! Simply the end result of what we all hope to achieve! Good luck on the removal, don't see how it could look any better but I'm looking forward to the finished result. I'm sure the corals will love all the stirred up nasties.

[joekidwell]

You have so many corals in there I don't even see any rocks. But one rock at a time and no worries.