Fake coral? Yep I said it....

[99Problems]

I'm asking for it starting a thread like this on a reef forum. However this is my big fowler tank and since there's not a fowlr2fowler forum here we are.

I've been looking at ocean aquaria fake coral which imo looks really good. Anybody else have any recommendations or pics of fake coral?

Here's a thread I found and a pic of what I kinda want to do.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/artificial-reef-coral-insert.266079/page-2

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

I looks pretty nice!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Lol, fowlr2fowlr

And no worries, plenty of fowlr users here. I really like the ones made by Tsunami Coral Reefs.

 

[99Problems]

Lol, fowlr2fowlr

And no worries, plenty of fowlr users here. I really like the ones made by Tsunami Coral Reefs.

I saw coral inserts ($$$$) but not any fake pieces. They look really though. I was wanting to attach this to my rock.

 

[fish farmer]

I replied my experience on that thread, some looked really great, some ok. The ones that looked really great floated and needed to be attached to something.

I pulled all the fake stuff from the fowlr I maintain and left them out in the sun. They did naturally come back to their original color, I just haven't got to scrubbing them yet.

I found all my various pieces on ebay.

 

[Auquanut]

Just curious. Will coraline grow on coral inserts? I bought a large fake coral insert for a fresh water tank years ago before I stated reefing. It lasted for years, but it faded over time and of course it dirtied up a bit. I always wondered what the "Tanked" corals looked like after 6 months or a year. Or if the tank maintainers replace the coral inserts periodically.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Just curious. Will coraline grow on coral inserts? I bought a large fake coral insert for a fresh water tank years ago before I stated reefing. It lasted for years, but it faded over time and of course it dirtied up a bit. I always wondered what the "Tanked" corals looked like after 6 months or a year. Or if the tank maintainers replace the coral inserts periodically.

It all depends if any coralline is introduced into the tank. If you do 100% fake rock and coral the likelyhood is very small. If its real rock but fake coral theres a good chance

 

[99Problems]

Just curious. Will coraline grow on coral inserts? I bought a large fake coral insert for a fresh water tank years ago before I stated reefing. It lasted for years, but it faded over time and of course it dirtied up a bit. I always wondered what the "Tanked" corals looked like after 6 months or a year. Or if the tank maintainers replace the coral inserts periodically.

That's what I'm curious about myself. I would think coraline would grow on whatever if the parameters are favorable.

 

[HCl+NaHO=]

Lol, fowlr2fowlr

And no worries, plenty of fowlr users here. I really like the ones made by Tsunami Coral Reefs.

Going to be pretty hard starting them in the future.

Kind of hard, virtually all of the real live rock importation has been stopped.

Maybe a new acronym?

Fish Only with Fake Live Rock

Fish Only with Dead Rock

Fish Only With Man Made Rock

For all intents and purposes, new FOWLRs are dead.

 

[Silver14SS]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-tank-on-a-tiny-island.584826/

This forum member recently purchased from Instant Reef and they sound happy. Maybe send a PM or post in their thread for more feedback?

 

[ZoWhat]

it's all looks good out of the box....but I would say give it 3-6mos exposure to salt and light and it would look like algae farm.

you'd then have to pull it and scrub it down. all those tinnie tiny crevasses you would have to use micro scrub brushes, small and more durable than a toothbrush

all that scrubbing would dull the color in 12mos (?)

just speculating it becoming a cleaning chore nightmare with micro crevasses getting dirty and that it would dull in color

 

[jda]

Make sure that you can take them out regularly. They get covered in algae and coralline if you don't run copper or another algicide - some of which can hurt some fish that you might want to keep. You gotta be able to clean them out of the tank.

In most FO tanks, the N and P get higher quickly and the coralline stops growing as fast, if at all. Other types of algae will grow, though, unless you get like over 40ppm of N and 1.0 P in which case a lot of marine algae will slow down with that much poison - each type varies, so this is just an example.

 

[99Problems]

Make sure that you can take them out regularly. They get covered in algae and coralline if you don't run copper or another algicide - some of which can hurt some fish that you might want to keep. You gotta be able to clean them out of the tank.

In most FO tanks, the N and P get higher quickly and the coralline stops growing as fast, if at all. Other types of algae will grow, though, unless you get like over 40ppm of N and 1.0 P in which case a lot of marine algae will slow down with that much poison - each type varies, so this is just an example.

That's another thing its almost like they need to be screwed in. I'm anal about water changes and have a giant area for macro with a 2ft tall skimmer riding shotgun. I could grow coral no problem if the fish would let me.

 

[99Problems]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-tank-on-a-tiny-island.584826/

This forum member recently purchased from Instant Reef and they sound happy. Maybe send a PM or post in their thread for more feedback?

I appreciate it but her inserts are like $500-600. The base rock is ridiculous while the little inserts are around $20ea.