flower
Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by da fish guy
http:///forum/post/3127122
I'm new to salt water tanks with some experience with fresh water. What I wanted to know is why I never see a salt water tank without ugly rocks and sand in them. I mean I understand some fish have certain leaving perimeters that they must have but I mean is it really that necessary. Why can't you just have ornaments with fake vegetation and fake (or real) colorful gravel or even stones like you see in fresh water aquariums. And let's say there are fish with special living accommodations like an eel for example, just provide something tubular or cave like so he can hide their. I mean I know that their are certain fish that do a lot of grazing like a blue hippo tang would do for example, but I mean if you feed it it's pellet or flake food and every now and than some seaweed ruberbanded to a stone it'll be alright.
A very long thread and I am too lazy to read it all...so here is my take for what it is worth.
Fake coral, and plants will become just like the live rock. The problem with it is that it will not look so nice once it is broke in so to speak. The live rock gets coralline algae...it looks nice on the rocks, but dirty on fake plants and corals.
You can't clean coralline off...it gets hard like rock...Coralline LOVES plastic ad grows really fast on it...you can't constantly replace the fake stuff because it is carrying the necessary bacteria the tank needs to be stable. So what you end up with is a very ugly fish tank, much worse looking than live rock.
By using live rock, it will always look like it is supposed to. If you like the colorful coral look, like me...then buy the real deal, which is way cooler than the fake stuff!
http:///forum/post/3127122
I'm new to salt water tanks with some experience with fresh water. What I wanted to know is why I never see a salt water tank without ugly rocks and sand in them. I mean I understand some fish have certain leaving perimeters that they must have but I mean is it really that necessary. Why can't you just have ornaments with fake vegetation and fake (or real) colorful gravel or even stones like you see in fresh water aquariums. And let's say there are fish with special living accommodations like an eel for example, just provide something tubular or cave like so he can hide their. I mean I know that their are certain fish that do a lot of grazing like a blue hippo tang would do for example, but I mean if you feed it it's pellet or flake food and every now and than some seaweed ruberbanded to a stone it'll be alright.
A very long thread and I am too lazy to read it all...so here is my take for what it is worth.
Fake coral, and plants will become just like the live rock. The problem with it is that it will not look so nice once it is broke in so to speak. The live rock gets coralline algae...it looks nice on the rocks, but dirty on fake plants and corals.
You can't clean coralline off...it gets hard like rock...Coralline LOVES plastic ad grows really fast on it...you can't constantly replace the fake stuff because it is carrying the necessary bacteria the tank needs to be stable. So what you end up with is a very ugly fish tank, much worse looking than live rock.
By using live rock, it will always look like it is supposed to. If you like the colorful coral look, like me...then buy the real deal, which is way cooler than the fake stuff!
tough i've come to a conclusion. You can have that biological life in your bio filter instead of keeping it in your tank via rocks and sand though. I mean granted that you have a full filtration system(bio,chemical,mechanical, and UV) witch is what I plan on using (canister filter) you can keep that stuff from growing and I think as long as you provide the fish with enough nutrients via foods(like pellet or flake food, frozen foods maybe mixed with nutrient additives like vitamins, fatty acids, and garlic) the fish is not going to die. Nevertheless though I see fish only aquariums that have nun-live rock and fake plants so... I think I'm starting to get the hang of this. I mean, look at this guy's tank...