changing the rockscape

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Bev, I was just wondering: Whats the longest you've ever left your tanks alone for? It seems like you are tearing your tanks down every couple of months or so.

Good question, Christy. Probably six or eight months might be the longest time I've had a tank without finding some reason to tear down and requascape it.

It's really not my favourite thing to do. Depending on the size of the tank, it can take a day and a half to tear down, look for crabs/remove valonia/remove a destructive fish/or whatever, then get it back together.

Reaquascaping is the toughest part, because I don't just throw the rock back in hoping it won't topple. I'm always looking for ways to improve tunnel systems for the buttterfly in the 120g, for example. Plus, I dislike the "wall of rock" look, so I'm always looking for ways to provide lots of water flow through the rock structure as well as give each tank a unique look.

I find the work to be terribly back breaking, even with dear husband Chris helping. Our current tanks are all shoulder high, so that means standing on a chair for much of the work.