Thoughts on fake coral?

[aquatix]

I've always loved the look of the hand crafted fake coral in tanks like the Mirage at Vegas and many others. The other cool feature is that you can build in jets and overflows into them:

http://www.atlantiswhitecaps.com/images/fakecoral.jpg

I am thinking of doing this in a 170 gallon tall, FISH ONLY tank I'm doing. What are the downsides?

[THE ROOK]

Downside? Having to tell fellow reefers they're fake. lol

Upside - Would probably look a heck of alot better than just a bunch of rock.

[username in use]

they grow algae and will need to be cleaned now and then. Eventually they will get coraline algae on them that will be more difficult. But everything we do needs occasional cleanings, so if you like them and are ok with cleaning, go for it.

[Bruce Wayne]

ummmm just put up a poster of a reef tank on the wall wherever you were going to put the tank that would be even better

[aquatix]

so far, so good :)

These would be hand crafted and made out of fish safe polymers. They design each one custom to the specific tank... I'd link to it but I don't think I'm supposed to.

[joeychitwood]

I think they would be fine in a fish-only tank. I agree that they would look better than base rock or dead coral, but don't overlook the benefits of live rock in the FO tank.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Well I’ve seen it done, what he does is buys 2 sets and makes them all easily removable from the tank and when the first sign of algae appears he replaces them with the ones that have been cleaned. It's no more time consuming than anything else in this hobby but like one person said above, Having to tell fellow reefers they're fake. However you know that they aren't going to RTN that’s for sure.

I’ll reserve my own personal opinion on the subject though.

[aquatix]

What's RTN?

Well, not sure if I'm supposed to link this, but go to http://www.*******.com/ and click on "*******al reefs."

Seems like it's pretty good...

[Sisterlimonpot]

RTN-Rapid tissue necrosis
It's one of the plagues of SPS

[LJA]

I would do it and wouldn't worry about cleaning them. I just could never spend more then a few dollars on "fake coral". Only place I've seen them for sale is Dr. Foster & smith and there is no way I would pay $20 for one fake coral.

[Sisterlimonpot]

If you don't clean them then you defeat the purpose of having them. once they encrust with coralline they are worthless.