Who Has Tanks With Fake Corals?

[Ryan S]

How many folks here have tanks with fake corals? I know Coral Hind does, but who else? Anyone with smaller tanks that exclusively use fake corals?

 

My wife and I were at Petsmart today and looking at a standard 29g tank. We put in 2 large fake coral pieces that they had, and the tank actually looked pretty nice. They were on sale for $25 and $50, and filled the entire back of the 20g tank. I’ve spent $75 on a 1” SPS frag before!

 

We've been watching Fish Tank Kings and Tanked lately, and they seem to exclusively do tank installs using fake corals. Sometimes, to my eye at least, they look way too bright and super fake. But, I've also seen other tanks that use less bright fake corals, that don't look too bad at all.

 

Fake corals means you don't need nice lights, don’t need a chiller, don't really need a skimmer either? No need for dosing chemicals, etc?  Just a filter like an emperor 400 in the back... Weekly water changes, etc... It seems like it would be much easier to maintain... Anyway, just curious who had tanks using fake corals here!

[smallreef]

on my old 150g predator tank and the prededing 35g predator i had fakes in both...along with some zoas and mushrooms that would grow on the fake rock...gave some good looks...

[NamReefs]

i used to have it before nice  but a lot of cleaning too ,hate that part .

[Squishie89]

I have a big fake coral piece in my tank. When I re-do the tank this fall I will not be doing that again.

 

Pros: Gives you color in the tank (especially if you are not doing corals or anemones), becomes "live" (mine right now has coraline algae, regular algae, bristleworms, peanut worms, pods, etc), not as hard to care for as corals, if you do decide to do corals, it can be great for placing the corals onto, lots of nooks and crannies for fish to hide in.

 

Cons: The color does fade over time and possibly even chip/break off (not a huge deal esepcially if coraline is growing on it), can be a detritus trap, can look a bit out of place in a tank.

[zygote2k]

I maintain about a dozen using fake corals.

Some of them look fantastic and have muted colors, some are gaudy and obnoxious. Most of these are in fish-only tanks and get dirty quickly. They either need to be bleached or the tank needs to be treated with Aqua-Maid (10% Hydrogen Peroxide).

I have incorporated some of the fake pieces into reef tanks and then after a year or so, they become like any other reef rock.

[davelin315]

Be wary, some of the coral molds turn sticky when bleached. Not sure why this is, but if they are the soft rubbery ones, I have seen it happen with corals from various manufacturers. No idea what influences is as it was not consistent.

[zygote2k]

I've melted overflow sponges with bleach. I prefer using snails instead of bleach to clean decos.

[Coral Hind]

Use Kent Marine's Marine Tank Clarifier to keep your tank and decorations clean. A six day dose of this stuff keeps everything clean for months. It not only binds with particulates to trap them in your filter system but it seems to also have something that wipes out diatoms. Here is a video of my tank from last night. I last dosed the Clarifier about a month ago and I haven't touched the glass since. You can see no diatoms and really clean decorations.

 

[londonloco]

WOW Coral, beautiful tank!

[lutz123]

Really nice - great to see that the product works!