Aquascaping

I performed a water change two days ago. I switched to Coralife salt from Reef Crystals. I was using Coralife in the summer and then switched to Reef Crystals when I found it at the Drs. Foster and Smith outlet in Wisconsin for $30. I have since run out of RC so I am back to finishing my bucket of Coralife. I've noticed that the Coralife doesn't dissolve as quickly as the RC. It also leaves a coating of crusty scum on the sides of the tank I use to mix and aerate. I've never noticed the scum with Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals but I also noticed it last time I used Coralife.

I received a lot of formerly live rock years ago from someone I work with that ripped down his tank. I bought a 75g tank from him with a stand for $50 or $100. With it he gave me a lot of this rock. It had been dried out for some time. I decided that it was time to bring this rock back to life so I bleached it for a few days and then let it sit in dechlorinated water for about a week. Changing the water every day and adding dechlorinator each time I changed the water.

When I lowered the water level in my tank two days ago during my water change I took the opportunity to add this rock into the tank. It is basically one 5 gallon bucket full of various pieces. I have another 5 gallon bucket in the bleach phase right now that I may add later.

The amount of live rock I had before allowed me to build a low wall in the back of the tank. I didn't have enough to make a nice slope that would allow adding more corals. So, with this new rock I did some aquascaping. I used as much as this white rock for base rock and placed it under my coraline encrusted live rock. A few large bleached pieces are visible at the top but they too will be encrusted with coraline.

Here are some pictures after the aquascaping:

From Paul's Reef

From Paul's Reef

From Paul's Reef

From Paul's Reef