Decorations for a Fish Only Marine Aquarium

[pdwire]

In looking at all the beautiful aquariums in the gallery they are all reef aquariums. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to decorate a fish only aquarium with?? I have looked at the synthetic coral on web sites and it looks well "synthetic". I hope to convert to a reef someday but want to make sure I will stick with the hobby and try a fish only first. Thanx for any suggestions or links to pictures.

 

[reefrunner69]

You might consider some lace rock or some base rock. I think Hara got some base rock from HiRocks.com and was pleased with what she got. The only way your going to get an honest to God reef look is to do a reef tank. Decorating with base rock or LR will be less stressful on your fish as well as more astheticly pleasing, IMO.

 

[cmor1701d]

How about some live rock. I have a FOwLR setup (for now) and the lr adds all the decoration I need. I keep seeing new things cropping up on it all the time. Well, ok, I recently got a couple of small Ricordea's too.

If/when I decide to upgrade my lighting the tank will probably become a reef tank.

 

[zephyr]

I don't actually own a saltwater aquarium, but was looking into buying one some time ago. You could try to get some liverock and some nice looking algaes. I like the marine algaes, and some of the common ones are quite simple to keep.

 

[pdwire]

Thanks for the great advice. I am convinced and will probably go with Live Rock. Any suggestions on where best to buy. Seems to be a lot of places on the net or is it usually better just to get from local store?? Cured or Uncured? Thanx again for answering these posts and I hope someday to offer some newbie the same curtesy.

 

[cmor1701d]

There are lots of places to get LR online, including some this forum's sponsors.

Cured or uncured, it still needs to be cured when you get it. If you don't have any livestock in the tank yet, you can cure it in the tank with the benefit of starting the cycle that way too. If you do have livestock in the tank you should cure it in another container first.

Check out: Curing Live Rock? I didn't even know it was sick!!
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=6

 

[PrettyFishies]

http://www.marinedepotlive.com
http://www.liveaquaria.com

 

[Hara]

Here is a picture of my 55 gallon FO tank....erm, I guess it has an anemone so technically it isnt FO anymore..but anyway..The rock is strictly the hirock and was quite cheap, it is coming along nicely and I am already starting to see coraline algae growth on it and it is just a month or so old. and ya just cant beat the price for dead rock.

 

[craque]

You could also try marine central esp. if you are looking to buy over 100lbs. The cool thing at marine central is that if you live near a major airport they can ship it via an airline you you pay somewhere between 40-60 bucks for shipping 100lbs. Be careful of certain places offering free shipping as this is usually UPS ground and your rock may get there bone dry even though you are paying for LR. Also agree on curing. Never believe anything as cured or pre-cured or whatever. Get it and cure it. Its simple just stick it in a container run some airstones or powerheads change the water every other day and it should be ready in 2-4 weeks. Good luck.

 

[PrettyFishies]

HARA: are you creating a reef tank (with that anenome)?

 

[BrianH]

Another option is Florida aquacultured rock from www.gulf-view.com

 

[Hara]

no, not especially. Just happened that was the only place I felt safe to put it. Carpet anemone are very very aggressive from what I have read and I didnt want to put it in the big tank where all the corals are.