What will work in place of live rock?

[wazuph2o]

In my 75 gal i have lots of LR but when i get the new larger tank, i am not gonna want the LR anymore since the LR takes away from the niceness of the aquarium since it makes the aqurium look ugly. Then in the new tank i am just going to put alot of dead stony coral in there with the LS of course, but instead of the LR i am going to need another type of rock that is a good substitute for the LR. Just some type of dead or fake rock that is cheap, and wont get as ugly as the LR but that i can build ontop of and make holes and caves and then place the stony corals ontop of that. If any could tell me a good rock to use as a substitute, that would be great, thanks

 

[saberry]

In my 75 gal i have lots of LR but when i get the new larger tank, i am not gonna want the LR anymore since the LR takes away from the niceness of the aquarium since it makes the aqurium look ugly. Then in the new tank i am just going to put alot of dead stony coral in there with the LS of course, but instead of the LR i am going to need another type of rock that is a good substitute for the LR. Just some type of dead or fake rock that is cheap, and wont get as ugly as the LR but that i can build ontop of and make holes and caves and then place the stony corals ontop of that. If any could tell me a good rock to use as a substitute, that would be great, thanks

I live in Houston, but I'll bet you can find someone there in Florida to take that UGLY lr off your hands. 8O

You can either make your own rock or buy base rock from hirocks.com or get Carib Sea Reef Rock.

The Reef Rock would probably be most like what you are looking for, but I don't know if it won't eventually begin to look like lr.

 

[indy]

What exactly is it about your current rock that is ugly to you?

 

[fishfreek]

Im curious about the live rock making the tank look bad concept. Do you have any photos of yoru tank?

 

[lando]

There are many types of LR available out there. They have different looks and styles. I think the benifits of LR outway the looks. I would try to find something acceptable before considering going rockless.

 

[wazuph2o]

Well what is the point of buying LR for my 240 gallon aquarium that i am upgrading to when my 75 gallon with LR is ugly as hell. The point of buying live rock is that it has live creatures blah blah blah helps filter the tank blah blah blah. You dont understand with my puffer and other fish, there is no point of having live rock. If i ever get another couple feather dusters or whatever, BAM! before you know it they are eaten by my fish. So basically with no creatures on the LR its dead, so whats the pt of buying more of it when my fish are going to kill all the live on it, making it dead. So i was thinking i could substitute something for the LR. Maybe sometype of lace coral or something, or that hawaiian coral that somebody posted would be nice. I also just want to buy dead white coral, like fans and branches to add in there with the rock. Bring out the color of the fish 8) Let me know what you think or if you just think im a complete idiot

 

[ellisz]

With the right lighting and tank conditions, coralline algae will give your tank a lot of color. Anything you put in there will eventually turn purple, pink, green etc. so adding anything else would be pointless, IMO.

I used to use bleach white dead coral and fake plants back in the old days. I don't like that look anymore. A big HOB filter would be needed though.

 

[Nitrate]

The beneficial part of LR is what you cant see, not what you can. Any critters that are visible just add diversity to the ecosystem.

LR is full of beneficial bacteria that help break down ammonia much in the same way that biological filters like wet/drys do, only much more efficiently.

I would be wary of buying dead corals as decoration because I would want to promote their harvest for that reason.

 

[lando]

Bottom line is that its your tank and, therefore, you can do whatever you like. However, the main benifit of LR is that it harbors the growth of bacteria that reduce nitrates and nitrites. This is why people get LR. It is not for the feather dusters and crabs and stars or other "hitch hikers", people simply consider those a bonus. LR works great in aggressive tanks with triggers, groupers, puffers because they are messy eaters. Nitrates are ussually a problem in these tanks due to waste. You can certainly get by with out LR. If you have a sump under your tank, just put LR rubble in there. That way it is out of site but you still get the benifit of biological filtration.

 

[quarryshark]

Agree with everyone above. Just want to add with you puffer, other fish and you are talking about a large angel, the bioload even with a large tank will be heavy as the fish mature. IMO the rock is the best way.

 

[ellisz]

I was not recommending the use/harvest of dead corals. There are fake items available now there were not available back then. Gift shops in FL will always carry that stuff for tourists though.

The point was that for looks he can do whatever but for filtration other than HOB filters or the use of a wet/dry, LR will be needed.

I still have my old stuff and it is a pretty green /purple now. Should look nice mixed in with my dead base rock in my new 72 gal.

Good luck

 

[mfrei64]

You could always add a few mushrooms to your tank....I don't think your fish would mess with them, and they would be great for a low light tank, grow and divide pretty rapidly, and are some of the most beautiful inverts going, especially when you have a variety. Once they cover your live rock, I doubt you would find them ugly.

Besides, with dead coral/rock you will constantly be fighting micro alga growth, no matter how hard y ou try......talk about ugly.

You can get lace rock ( I think they call it) at a nursery as a base for your 275 (along with any dead corals you have) , cover it up with the live rock, and eventully, all the other stuff will have the "live" benefits too. Add the mushrooms, let em go, and in a while you'll have a great "fish only" tank.

 

[HoopsGuru]

All good points. Just to add onto the dead coral issue.....bright clean dead coral will simply turn nasty with nuisance algae. It is a sterile (in regards to algae), which makes it the perfect spot for nuisance algae to take hold since it is the most efficient at utilizing available nutrients (desirable algaes...especially corallines...take a while to establish in comparison). In a large tank, that equals a lot of cleaning or a lot of nasty dead coral.

 

[wazuph2o]

ok well in that case maybe you could tell me why my LR is not nice looking. I checked all of my tank conditions and they are perfect but my all of my rocks are covered in green algae. I used to get the red coraline algae for a couple months, that went away and now its green algae. My lighting is 1 regular 40 watt flourescent light and 1 40 watt corallife actinic blue. Maybe the coral life actinic blue light is causing the algae growth? I have good filtraqtion, 1 emperor 400 and 1 fluval 406. I have a protein skimmer, regular water changes/checks. How can i get rid of that green algae all over the rocks and bring the rocks back to their regular stage when i bought them or the coralline algae my puffer loved so much that he decided to eat it all up. Is it because my fish are messy eaters or what? I dont know what the problem is, maybe you people could help me cause ive tried about everything and am the point of giving up on the LR. :?


Oh yeah, thanks for all the input and help, i appreciate it

 

[Nitrate]

I had the same problem until I added a partial clean up crew. Urchins work good at grazing algea off of the LR and your puffer most likely wont mess with them. Some turbos and hermits might be in order too, but no gaurantee that the puffer wont terrorize them.

If it's Cyano bacteria and not algea thats growing then there are other steps you need to take to eliminate it. If you could provide pics it would help with diagnosis.

Good luck and HTH

 

[wazuph2o]

Hmmmmmm, i will look into the urchin but i have also tried a cleanup crew, within 3 days they were all gone, snails, hermits and emerald crabs. Rightnow i want to get the LR cleaned and upto par before i put it in my 240 gallon that i am setting up. I will try and get some pics for you later. Dont forget, i also have 4 yellow tail damsels, flame hawkfish, yellow hawaiian tang, and 2 percs along with the puff. Is there anything else besides the urchin that might clean up the tank without getting eaten?

oh and somebody said something about putting mushrooms in my tank to liven it up. Will the puffer really not eat these? I dont want him to get high lol

i was thinking of something like this kind of setup for my tank. Doe anyone know what kinds of rocks these people are using?
http://www.aquarium-design.com/tank/collier.html
http://www.aquarium-design.com/tank/kent.html
http://www.aquarium-design.com/tank/bill.html
http://www.aquarium-design.com/tank/mcclure.html
http://www.aquarium-design.com/tank/global.html

 

[fishfreek]

What are your phosphate levels?

One should not dismiss the filtration capacity of the live rock. This outweghts the visable life on the rock IMO.

YOu said you have a 75 gal tank? two NO florcents over the tank is hardly enough to grow anything other than nusance alge.

 

[ellisz]

Agreed on the light problem. You can get a cheap 4x55 PC fixture that will give you some decent coralline growth. This is what I started out with on my 75.

I have a 29 gal with a single NO light and I do get some coralline growth but it is only green and brown. What kind of lights were you planning for the bigger tank? Lighting can be expensive.

 

[HoopsGuru]

ok well in that case maybe you could tell me why my LR is not nice looking.

In addition to improving your lighting, are you sure that the green isn't coralline? This color grew at a tank I maintain which only had a NO light. I got some purple going now that I finally convinced them to upgrade to a PC unit.

Another thing sticks out to me. You use both a Emperor and Fluval...and mechanical filters are known for raising nitrate levels. They trap debris and generally aren't recommended for reef tanks for this reason.

You are limited with keeping a cleanup crew, so I would instead employ first a heavy duty skimmer. What kind do you have now?

i was thinking of something like this kind of setup for my tank. Doe anyone know what kinds of rocks these people are using?

Keep in mind these are display tanks for a website. IMO, they are either very new or freshly cleaned. They are using either fake or real coral skeletons, and they will require to be cleaned/bleached to keep that pristine look. With the bioload you are anticipating for the 240g, I do not think you will be able to recreate this look.

 

[dicjones]

Wazup2o,

I also have a 75 gallon, with about 100 pounds of live rock in it. I couldn't possibly imagine anything looking more stunning than the LR. I would have to agree with the others here about the amount of lighting. I have a 265 watt coralife compact fluorescent fixture on my tank. I can literally see the coralline algae growing by the week.

Another note about the bleached coral. From what I have read, Fish in those kinds of setups have shown a tendency to actually become less colorful and present a more dull appearance.