so is live rock a must

[Johnnyfishtanks]

so i see online there all this plastic planted decoration.
i want to do a full tank like this.
Red Sea Coral Reef Aquarium Ornaments - Décor - Fish - PetSmart
would this be ok. our do i have to do live rock . i cant really afford to do live rock and there some in the tank but i can afford to do alot of this fake plant stuff

[Aquaman]

I would add afew pieces of rock ( live or dead ) the dead rock will come around eventually. You need that for your bio ? .You could add a few plastic plants till you got enough bit and pieces of corals .
Take your time and add a bit here and there. If you want come by and I will give you a few pieces of dead rock you can stuff in there.
Personally I think it would look tacky with all the palstic stuff. But thats just my opinion. Some people like it some don't.( your little girl would LOVE it )
Take your time ...piece by piece and you will have a stunning tank.


If it gets to much for you I will gladly give you double what you paid for it LOL .

Some times ya gotta enjoy the drive to the destnation .

[ibenu]

Johnny, are you doing a Fish Only With Live Rock ? I think you are and as the live rock is your filter buy as much as you can

Eww on the Petsmart stuff really, and it wont have spaces for things colonize it (the happy filter stuff) you need porous material..http://www.fishlore.com/saltwater_aquarium_types.htm
Link above check it out let us know what kind of salt water you are doing.. EXCITING going to the dark side!!

This id from JL I cannot find the pick but they have HUGE ceramic pieces that LOOk like rock white now and will colonize all the stuff you want for your filter so to speak...

You need live rock regardless as thats how you filter salt water by all reference material I have read. Otherwise whats going to keep your tank alive?

[CGY_Betta_Guy]

I have never done SW but have a question related to this since I am thinking about starting. If you were to use the plastic decoration wouldnt there be potential for creatures (anemones etc) to move onto the surface of it making it hard to remove the decoration later on without killing/damaging the animals?

Also... just to comment... that plastic decoration looks really fake and unnatural. If I were you I would just slowly add live rock as you are able to afford it but like I said I dont know anything about SW. :P

[cichlid]

hmm, I never thought about doing plastic in a salt tank.. you should totally check out mini reefs, Ive seen them in as small as 3.3 gallon tanks. this one guy even made one in a 1 gallon with under gravel filters. you would only need like 0ne or two pieces of rock, then start saving and by the time you have the cash to set the big tank up, you have established rock you can move over.

Here's another question. live sand verse regular sand, ho much longer does it take to establish?

[Johnnyfishtanks]

Johnny, are you doing a Fish Only With Live Rock ? I think you are and as the live rock is your filter buy as much as you can

Eww on the Petsmart stuff really, and it wont have spaces for things colonize it (the happy filter stuff) you need porous material..Saltwater Aquarium Types - FOWLR, Fish Only with Live Rock, Reef Tank
Link above check it out let us know what kind of salt water you are doing.. EXCITING going to the dark side!!

This id from JL I cannot find the pick but they have HUGE ceramic pieces that LOOk like rock white now and will colonize all the stuff you want for your filter so to speak...

You need live rock regardless as thats how you filter salt water by all reference material I have read. Otherwise whats going to keep your tank alive?

i was gonna put the live rock i have in the back . putt fake stuff in the front .
ive done a little research and its ok . the plastic stuff there is red sea coral life brand it is not petsmart brand name crap .

[Johnnyfishtanks]

I have never done SW but have a question related to this since I am thinking about starting. If you were to use the plastic decoration wouldnt there be potential for creatures (anemones etc) to move onto the surface of it making it hard to remove the decoration later on without killing/damaging the animals?

Also... just to comment... that plastic decoration looks really fake and unnatural. If I were you I would just slowly add live rock as you are able to afford it but like I said I dont know anything about SW. :P

it is fake but it is for a 2 year old kid . and my i don't really want a bigger electric bill . as my 180 600 watts of light is good

[Johnnyfishtanks]

and this is the idea more for what i wanna do
YouTube - 120 Gallon Saltwater Fish Only / Marine Fish Aquairum with Artificial Coral Reef Aquarium Decoration

[Otter]

From the decription:

In this particular fish tank which is a 120 Gallon tank 6 feet in length, had approximately 100 lbs of live rock; as you can see the tank appeared empty, and the fish had little hiding spaces. Upgrading this Fish-Only-with-Live-Rock tank was easy. First, clean the new artificial reefs thoroughly to remove all packing materials. It is recommended to soak Instant Reef in freshwater 24 hours before installing. Next, carefully place the artificial coral reefs into the tank. Feel free to leave existing Live Rock in the tank and utilize them with the artificial coral reef inserts, doing this provides more caves for your fish to enjoy!

It's a little misleading either way, as it later states that this product helps prevent the removal of live rock from the sea...

Anyhow, they kept the live rock in this one, and just added those ugly inserts.

[fkshiu]

Strictly speaking you do not need any live rock for SW. There was a time in the bad old days when no one had ever heard of live rock and people used UGFs in SW tanks.

You can get nitrifying bacteria to develop the same way it does in FW (e.g. on a filter sponge), but live rock makes life much easier and interesting because of it's lifeforms and de-nitrification powers.

Those fake corals on not really my cup of tea, but adding them is no different than adding any other decoration to a FW tank. If you're going to spend all that money on a bunch of fake stuff, I would rather buy a couple pieces of actual live rock and then fill the rest of the tank out of base rock. Over time I guarantee you will get the reef itch and want to experiment. Any old PC fixture can keep alive a wide range of low light corals.