Moving rock in established system.

[cytranic]

Ok so my tank has been up for about 9 months now. Its doing great, but I only have one complaint.

When I first setup the system, I spent about $400 on 3 nice peices of rock. The rock is wonderful, and full of life. However, I needed more rock at the time so I ordered crap rock from Dr. Fosters ($99 Special) and i'm not sure why but I covered up all my $400 rock with this crap looking rock..

Move ahead 9 months later and now I want to rearrange so I can show my nice rock, and use the crap rock for base.

My question is, how much will I screw up my tank if I move almost every peice of rock (About 80 pounds)...Most of the nice live rock is burried in the sand somewhat, so I know when I move it, its going to create a nice sand storm.

Will I crash my tank by doing this?

[oyam123]

if you got a skimmer going the system will be OK!

your fish may freekout.....and the stress could end up on death of fighting.

[skeety]

Originally Posted by cytranic

Most of the nice live rock is burried in the sand somewhat, so I know when I move it, its going to create a nice sand storm.

How deep is your SB? and how deep is the rock burried in it?

There is a layer, in deep sand beds, that can poison the water if disturbed.

Also...can you SEE that your old original rock is still nice? Being covered with the "crap looking rock" might have made the original rock look pretty crappy too.

[VWD]

That what I am thinking your nice rock is not going to look all that nice now,

[Loverotties]

It's 9 months to late!

[cytranic]

No the nice looking rock still looks great and is not covered by much of the crap rock, But I would rather have the nice stuff on top.

My SB is about 1.5 inches, and I would say one rock is probley touching the glass on the bottom. In fact I did lift up one of the rocks and all this yellow water came out, didnt look nice hence the reason for my post.

[tabwyo]

leave it alone. If after 9 months the crap rock still looks crappy then it's your system and not the rock. Disturbing the base rock will expose anoxic zones in your sandbed. These areas are the ones the give you the "rotten egg" smell. That smell is H2S or hydrogen sulfide, a highly soluible and extremely toxic compound. H2S in concentration as low as 100 ppm (parts per million) can cause instant death in humans. Now consider how small and sensitive your wet friends are. level 1/1000 of 100ppm can be stressful even to the point of mortality for sensile invertibrates and small fish.