no, you would need to rehome them or do portions of your rock at a time. I know how it is being frustrated with rockwork. it took me several hours a day for 3 days to get my aquascape how I wanted it. that was 3 weeks ago and I was very happy I finally got it all perfect and I wouldn't have to bother with it for a very long time, guess what happens.... just got a deal on a 90g so ill be switching tanks soon -.-

 

Do you have any recent pictures?

Not sure about you, but it seems like none of my work is very stackable. Most of it is very heavy, the pieces that are light are very oddly shaped. Obviously, it's too late to do anything about it now, other than get rid of some of it.

 

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6/phanes-dual-55g-amp-a-mini-shiny-stuff-build-222318.html

that thread shows two of my aquascapes. I like arches lol. my 90g is going to have two pyramids on either side of the tank and a pillar in the middle against the back glass with a waterfall powered by my return pump and a sandpit at the bottom of the pillar. the tank will be barebottom except for the sandpit. then each pyramid wil have a rock bridge leading to the top of the waterfall. the pillar and rock bridges ill probably make myself out of concrete so its gonna take a couple of months before its finished.

 

Do you use ro/di? Do you siphon the sand bed when you do water changes. The system is young and it will take a while for everything to balance out. If it is dynos you could try a 3 day blackout with peroxide dosing.

 

What do you mean by crumbling? Your rock is heavy? Is is porous @ all? Is it falling apart because of the smooth surfaces, shape, stacking technique?

Rock work should not be this frustrating and ongoing for you.

 

If the crumbling is just the rock falling after you place it , you can always remove a few pieces drill a hole and place a piece if cleaned PVC pipe as a peg to hold them together.

 

I've got some pics of my rock work in my sig if you're looking for some ideas

 

By crumbling, I mean that the rock falls to the bottom at times when cleaning. I never glued anything down, so it's not exactly sturdy. I try to get it as sturdy as possible, but it seems as if it never is quite sturdy enough. Of course once one rock falls, many tend to follow, after that it's nearly impossible to get the shape scape as you had it. When I do water changes, I do siphon out the sandbed, but the sandbed is looking really rough right now regardless. I definitely have dino's, there is nothing else this could be. I had a GHA problem first, and I know it was mixed with Dino's. My tang and of course manual removal helped rid me of GHA. Now, I still have Dino's, granted, not near the extent of my GHA problem. Does GFO help combat Dino's? I was reading about Fauna Marin Ultra Algae X beating Dino's, may try that.

Also, regarding the consistency of the rock, there are multiple types of rock, some solid, some porous. Some rounded, very little are flat.

 

dont get discoraged!

just take your time!!! saltwater hobbyist spend COUNTLESS hours achieving a rockwork that lets them sleep at night!

if you cant find NATURAL sturdy positions without glue.. i would suggest any type of water safe pegs.. and drilling holes through your rocks. just be sure to be careful drilling non porous rocks.. as drilling through them will most likely cause them to break in half etc etc.

 

In my 75G I use big pieces of rock. 2x 25lb base rock and about 6-7 smaller pieces that stack pretty nicely. If you have a lot of smaller pieces, build the base first with the biggest pieces and maybe use some reef safe epoxy to help secure the smaller pieces. You can also drill holes in the smaller rocks and use acrylic rods to help hold them together.
Patience is a huge payoff in this hobby. 6 months down the road you could look at your work and sit in-awe at how much new life is growing and moving around the tank.

 

Here is a semi-recent FTS of my 75G and the rockwork. This tank was started at the end of August.

 

Peroxide dosing 1 ml per 10 gallons 3 day black out along with wet skimming and running a hob filter of carbon got rid of mine

 

So do I just dump this directly into the tank, wont harm my fish?

Here is a picture of my current scape after the catastrophe last night.

 

Personally, if you have larger rounded rocks, trade them in for odd shaped light porous rocks. They will have more places to hold corals, are easier to stack, etc, but do also have more places to hold detrius, so are a little harder to clean. The heavy rounded rocks are terrible for aquascaping...I had the same problem and traded all the heavy rounded pieces in. Now I have plenty of natural caves for the fish to hide in, plenty of holes to insert corals, etc. And it doesn't fall over anymore....except for one piece, but i can easily fix that one with a little work.

 

Nice work S, but you appear to have more vertical posture with not enough width at the base for stability.
The arch over your Tang and the 'T-Rex' looking [very cool, btw] rock, would easily get knocked off by an eel or some other aggressive fish.

Here's an example of my 'scape. Lot's of 'body' under arch and the base is wide and supporting.

HTH

 

Your scape is nice! It's got some pretty unique looking rocks. Nice.

 

I have a three spot damselfish (I actually wish I never bought it) that I have caught nudging rocks over to the bottom. Some are larger than he is too!

 

My Sleeper Goby made a home under 2 of the biggest rocks in my tank. Glad I put the rock in first and the sand last.

 

that's my issue now, my diamond goby will dig in the sand and make a huge hole making my rocks shift and fall. I made the mistake of adding the sand and putting my rock on top of the sand.

Didnt have the issue till last week i added that goby ha.

 

And so the blackout begins. Anyone else care to elaborate more on this hydrogen peroxide dosing? Should I do this in combination with the black out, or just black out?

 

Thnx Spewd. Some are DIY, like the end wall and arches.

I'd put a cover on the sump too if'n I were you. Light is light. You want none.

 

The sump actually isn't in use yet.

 

Ha....thought you had really really clean water.

Are you gonna sneak a peek once a day or more?

 

I will whenever I feed the fish, which will be once a day.

 

1ml per 10g a day

 

The aquascape looks nice!!! I notice you have rocks tight up against the side of your glass on farthest ends... although it give the tank a true rock wall effect... be careful you are not blocking flow to the back or front of the tank (depending on your pumps)... it is a good idea to make sure there is adequate flow to the FRONT and BACK of the rockwork... this will help prevent dead zones and build of of wastes.

 

Someone once asked about corals? Do you have any?

 

No corals yet. Since I did everything wrong the first time, I decided I'd really let my tank mature before getting corals. Looks like it was the right call. I definitely don't want to get an expensive coral, and have it killed off by dinos.

 

Why peroxide? I must have missed something in the post?

 

Dynos

 

Bingo...thanks James

 

It appears the three day blackout period has been successful, my rocks all look so clean. I cleaned out the remains of the Dino's off of the glass, and tomorrow I will be removing the sand bed entirely, and replacing it with Dry Sand. Thanks! Hopefully they stay gone. If they do not, I will be attempting the Hydrogen Peroxide dosing.