Fake aquascape rocks and coral

seahorse11

seahorse11

Member
Does anyone know of a good website that sells fake coral, lava rocks etc? I am setting up a 125gallon with some LR and will have mostly fish but a few inverts ( horseshoe crab, snails, starfish) and dont want the aggravation of having to care for anemones or coral. Some of the fake stuff I have seen in other tanks looks so real you cant tell the difference, esp after a few months when the algae has started growing.
I have tried the auction website but didnt find anything I liked. ANybody have a website that sells a good selection?
THanks :needhelp:
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Not sure but I would go with base rock instead of the lava rock... base rock is fairly cheap and will become live in time.
 
jr1053

jr1053

Member
I'm using fake coral rocks which I obtained from *********. I bought several rocks in all the available sizes and created a beauty of a coral reef with many caves and hiding spots for the sealife in my 110G tank.They look very authentic and are an affordable option if your not ready to make the plunge to a LR setup. I included a link to the website showing their selections.Good luck!
Link Not Allowed
John
 
jer4916

jer4916

Active Member
problem with fake rock is it wont help filter your tank..it doesn't do anything, so its truely pointless other then for looks.
 
nomad

nomad

Member
If you do want to pay even the base rock prices, then make your own rocks. The DIY rocks are much cheaper and even look better than the ones you can buy. After you have shaped them and they have dried for several days, you can even add Rit dye to white Portland cement and add splashes of color to your rocks so that they look like coralline of various colors has been growing all over it. Besides which you can have fun playing 'mud pies' while creating a wonderful new world in your tank -- I don't think anyone outgrows mud pies.
 
seahorse11

seahorse11

Member
Thanks for the great input. In my 125gal I will have prolly 50-60 lbs of LR and sand. To save some money ( hundreds of dollars) I thought that adding the fake stuff would work well. What is wrong with lava rock? How do you attach all the rock pieces together? Do you just pile it on top of each other or do you somehow "glue" them together?
Thanks
 
jer4916

jer4916

Active Member
Problem with fake rock is, it only serves a visual purpose for you,...doesn't truely do anything for the tank...hence making the tank less stable....in the long run your going to spend more money adding live rock later and dead fish/corals...etc because you didn't set up the proper biological filtration the first time...i mean do what you want...but its seriously a bad idea...main reason i know... is because i did it with my first tank.
do what ya gotta do...but my theory with saltwater is go all out and do everything 100% right...or seriously dont do it at all because you'll end up spending more money..and having a crappy tank thats constantly crashing. Besides if you dont do it right...your tank will crash and you'll quit the hobby by the end of the year.
 
teresaq1

teresaq1

Member
you can buy base rock for about 50 lbs for between 70 and 80 bucks. just do a netscape search on base rock.
for my 150, i am mixing the 60 lbs live rock, i have in my 55 with 55 lbs base rock, and about 50 lbs diy rock i made,
 
derxz

derxz

Member
sorry to hijack, but a quickie question. If i make my own LR from the receipe, will it soon become LR??? I already have 30lbs but I need 30-40 more. Let me know
 
S

shark bait

Guest
I P/U some awsome fake coral from my LFS out of an old display, and while i have 100 lbs of live tonga, and 80 of sand it finaly made my tank look real. The fake yellows and red are vivid with the light and add a real calming look to the tank. I wish i could do live corals, but I love triggers more.
Just make sure you stick to the live rock per gallon ratio and then see what room you have for fake stuff.
Originally Posted by seahorse11
Does anyone know of a good website that sells fake coral, lava rocks etc? I am setting up a 125gallon with some LR and will have mostly fish but a few inverts ( horseshoe crab, snails, starfish) and dont want the aggravation of having to care for anemones or coral. Some of the fake stuff I have seen in other tanks looks so real you cant tell the difference, esp after a few months when the algae has started growing.
I have tried the auction website but didnt find anything I liked. ANybody have a website that sells a good selection?
THanks :needhelp:
 
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