Fake coral

iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
Hi everyone...some of you know I have had a pretty successful sw tank for 5+ years now...I recently tore my 90 gallon cube down because I bought a new house and need to move the tank...anyways seeing that I am starting over I was wondering on your thoughts on fake coral? In the past I have only had LR and really am kind of tired of the skeleton looking tank look..I don’t want to put in the time and effort of real coral and I don’t want to limit the types of fish I can purchase so fake seems like an option...so again I’m just looking for some thoughts and opinions and tips for any of you with experience...how does the coral look after 3 months 6 months 1 year etc...Do’s and dont’s? What companies have nice quality what companies don’t?...I assume algae growth is still a factor with fake coral? Will it develop a film on the coral and look terrible? Can I get urchins to help with keeping the fake coral clean or will they just chew up the fake coral? Any and all information is appreciated information overload is welcome...thanks everyone!
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Biggest issue is alagae growth on it. You can try and combat it but you'll never get it all.
That said. You can try some easy coral. Zoas, mushroom, ect. While some of it is costly, the avg colors are very reasonable. Going by your past stock, really all you'd have to watch is a dwarf angel. Rabbit fish, tangs, wrasse, will all leave it alone.
I have a few zoas, i got accidentally with some macro alagae. Even my butterfly leaves it alone. I keep the fish well fed tho.
 
lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
personally I’m not a fan. I prefer some simple softies to the fake stuff If nothing else for the movement. I can see the advantage though Especially if you don’t want to limit fish. the good fakes are really expensive.
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
Yep I was reading the good ones are close to the same price as LR per pound if not a tad more...but yes I tried to keep simple zoas but no luck...I don’t want to have to spend any amount of money on lights either so...anyways thanks for your thoughts I don’t know what I’ll do yet
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
But yeah my zoas one by one would disappear...i dont know if it was my tuxedo urchins or what but they would slowly fade away
 
lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
Maybe too much light for the zoas. Nems need a lot zoas don’t. You could try star polyps they do well low in my tank. The SPS are up high in the tank and the nems are where they want to be.
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
yeah maybe ill just have to go with a bunch beginner corals and call it goodenough...because i think the lights i have would work idk
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Agreed. Alot of softies love a " dirty" tank. Meaning higher trates. Not over like 40-50 ppm lol but over 10ppm is fine.
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
Well I’ve always pretty much just had fish so I never really cared to much that mine was off the charts lol and seeing that I never even had a strand of algae growth I never bothered to even change water more then a couple times a year if that lol
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Lol i tried that. Took a water sample to a lfs. My salinity was a bit high i knew that. My nitrates as he put it where WAY up there lol. Said even his corals that liked it high would be like wth lol. So i got far more religious with my water changes. 11 gal a week. Everything seems much better.
I should say i lost alot of fish over a yr ago to a power outage. So my maintenance went down with only my brittle star and clown goby left in the tank. That is why the nitrates got so high. Now my new stock is doing wonderful and i have a generator!!
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
So do you guys do any dosing? Or does it pretty much replenish itself just from simply doing water changes? But yeah J my trates have always registered off the charts lol and I say this now but we all know how the attitude changes as time passes...eh I’ll get to the water change next week etc...but yeah I want to be religious about it as well...what do they say 10-20% a week? Ugh that just seems crazy...especially if you have 300-400 gallons of water...which I don’t at the moment but who knows once I get settled into the new house
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top