FOWLR and Artificial Corals

[dzfish17]

The other day a thread was started on RC stating that marine tanks and artificial corals dont mix. I was going to incorporate some into my rock wall aquascape. I found some pretty realistic looking corals at dmanwarren co. Cleaning the corals will be part of my maintenance schedule. It seems that some people frown on this. What are you're thoughts on marine tanks with artificial corals?

Dave

 

[olemiss reb]

They're not my cup of tea but it really only matters if you like them.

 

[Jhockey]

I wanted to do dead corals, I think a large staghorn coral would make a great center piece. The biggest problem with dead or fake corals is keeping them clean. You'll have to brush them constantly and more then likely removed them periodically and soak them in vinegar or bleach etc. More work then I want to do, not to mention pricey so I'll just make my rock work as appealing as possible.

 

[G.H. Dorr]

I've been down this road with Living Color installations.
They look great! ... for the first month ... cleaning them is extremely tedious and difficult. The dirt builds up and becomes hard making cleaning more and more difficult every month ... I took them all out. I miss them and may put them back ... but definitely plan for a lot more maintenance work.

 

[Arkayology]

It isn't worth the hassle of cleaning them imo

 

[Stuart60611]

It isn't worth the hassle of cleaning them imo

That is the main problem. I just pulled mine out this weekend. I found that I had to remove and clean them at least every 2 weeks which was just too much of pain. plus, my trigger loved to play with some of them and would move them around to his liking. Moreover, my tank is heaviky stocked, and the artificial corals took up a suprising amount of swimming room which I otherwise prefer to leave for my fish.

 

[Toddrtrex]

This thread brings back memories -- the early '90's, and having 2 sets of white (( and I want to say there was a blue one mixed in there too )) coral skeletons and rotating them out when they got too covered in algae and using bleach to clean the dirty ones.

 

[barbianj]

Plus, when they get a skim coat of algae, your reefer buddies will laugh at your "green corals". :sad2:

 

[dzfish17]

I guess the conclusion is that nobody uses them and they have no business in marine aquariums.

Thanks for the replies, Dave

 

[Jack01]

There are many opinions but here is mine:

Ok yes the 80s and 90s look of white dead coral skeletons with the odd blue ridge or red pipe organ mixed in is way out dated. (Actually it can still look nice its just a bit of work maintaining the look)

Obviously the white dead coral skeletons have a lot of drawbacks; they turn green quickly, they are delicate, expensive, harder to clean, ect, ect. Not to mention most of those corals are broken off from a living reef and dried out for decoration - not cool.

Anyways, there's a modern solution - synthetic corals they look great realistic. The moulds are taken from real coral and filled with silicone. I got mine from ocean aquaria on ebay. Check out the site for an idea of what you can get. www.oceanaquaria.com

Or google Living Color Enterprises.

 

[Jack01]

dzfish17, I looked up dlmanwarren corals and they look great. Basically what I'm using. They are easy to clean just take em out and soak them for 15 mins in a very weak bleach solution. I use a small pour in a bucket and they come out clean almost like brand new. Easy. I think people are discouraging you from using white dead coral but these resin corals are great. I wish I could upload pics of my 75gal fish only.

Heres some youtube links that give you an idea what my tank looks like (way better than boring fowler, unless you like looking at rocks)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLYLIenbYLc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhCHnvTsg1k

I used these examples and mimic these tanks. I use a huge wet dry filter to accomplish biological filtration instead of using liverock.

One last point about those pre made reef inserts - I was going to get one but they are too big to remove from the aquarium and clean. So I bought a small 15x15x18 one that I can soak in a garbage can and then I bought a bunch of stand alone corals for around the sculpture and other areas of the tank.

 

[dzfish17]

Well at least one other person doesnt mind artificial corals in their tank. The corals that I purchased from dlmanwarren are synthetic. The dlmanwarren co. did the tank at the mirage in Las Vegas. The only drawback I see is cleaning them. Since this is my only tank I dont see a problem. Im only talking about 15 corals anyway just to color things up a bit.

Dave

 

[dzfish17]

Thanks for the links Jack. The corals in the second video look more realistic but I dont care for them placed on the sand. Im building a rock wall the full height of my tank and will incorporate the corals into it.

Dave

 

[Stuart60611]

Thanks for the links Jack. The corals in the second video look more realistic but I dont care for them placed on the sand. Im building a rock wall the full height of my tank and will incorporate the corals into it.

Dave

Having just gone through this, I suggest whatever you decide that you aquascape so as to make it easy to remove your fake corals frequently for cleaning without upseting the aquascape. You will have to do so at least monthy and more likely bi-weekly.

If you are curious as to what my tank looked like just up and until last weekend with fake corals and other decorations, see page 19, post 466 in the below thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1146565&page=19

 

[Jack01]

Pics?

 

[Stuart60611]

Pics?

See the link in the above post (edited probably after you read it to add link to pictures and video).

 

[saltyguy51]

I think I could solve your dilema-- get a tank big enough for you to put on a wet suit and jump in there with a hand held brush and clean them for a few hours at a time like the Bass Pro store in Bolingbrook, IL.

 

[dzfish17]

Having just gone through this, I suggest whatever you decide that you aquascape so as to make it easy to remove your fake corals frequently for cleaning without upseting the aquascape. You will have to do so at least monthy and more likely bi-weekly.

If you are curious as to what my tank looked like just up and until last weekend with fake corals and other decorations, see page 19, post 466 in the below thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1146565&page=19

Yeah, Im designing it so that I can remove the corals and clean them. I got rid of all my other tanks (210g reef, 125g cichlid, multiple breeding tanks) to focus on this tank. I still think cleaning some corals is easier than running a large reef tank. Thanks for the link.

Dave

 

[dzfish17]

I think I could solve your dilema-- get a tank big enough for you to put on a wet suit and jump in there with a hand held brush and clean them for a few hours at a time like the Bass Pro store in Bolingbrook, IL.

My 7 yr. old son has volunteered for this job. :wildone:

 

[alan214]

I am actually giving this a try now. I was never crazy about the fake look of artificial coral but I found some online that are not bad at all. I have them placed in front of my live rock so they are easily removed for cleaning.

I will report back in a few months on how bad the algae problem becomes. I don't expect much (if any) coraline as this is basically FOWLR.