How does my FOWLR "artificial" tank look?

EnLight · Jul 17, 2014

Not sure if that's the correct term for it, but seeing how I have coral-unfriendly fish, I've been working hard to find a replacement to coral instead of just stacking some brown rocks around. I've looked all around for silicone corals, artificial corals, etc. I finally put a few hours aside and did a ton of drilling, glueing, and rearranging to come together with this. I still have some much needed live rock in there of course but I'd love to hear some feedback to see what I can improve on!

Full view:

Closeup of the main structure with numerous artificial corals drilled/glued onto it

Live rock "cave"

All suggestions and feedback welcome! I'd love to see some of your "artificial" tanks for ideas, pictures are highly encouraged

EnLight · Jul 17, 2014

Also, does anyone know how I can keep this clean? My last set up turned an ugly brown and was impossible to scrub off. Any special guys I can buy to help me keep this clean without my valentini puffer going to town on them?

Also, sorry for the bad pics. iPhone doesn't compare to a real camera.

IdahoNano · Jul 17, 2014

Holy cow, that looks outstanding! Your work rivals many of those "tv" guys!

Squishie89 · Jul 17, 2014

Wow, I love it! Great job!

TJ's Reef · Jul 17, 2014

OUTSTANDING 'Artificial Reef' you have there, great job! Maybe try something like the 'Nualgi' product in there to keep nutrients and algae at a minimum ???

Cheers, Todd

Bad Company · Jul 18, 2014

what about a waterfall algae scrubber and a herbivorous fish or five?

gacolt · Jul 18, 2014

i think it looks great.one of the better looking fowlrs i have seen.nice job

fishroomlady · Jul 18, 2014

I agree with others in that the tank looks good but I might take a few pieces out.....less to clean that way - just a few pieces scattered throughout the tank may look a little more natural.

revhtree · Jul 18, 2014

Looks good man!

EnLight · Jul 18, 2014

Thanks for all the feedback

gonna head to my LFS soon and hope they have a few things to help me keep it clean. I appreciate it!

xaws · Jul 18, 2014

i think UV

wowkingjames · Jul 18, 2014

The show "Tanks" should hire you! Great Job!!!

Poseidon's Reef · Jul 18, 2014

Ive seen some of the bigger FOWLER tanks actually take out the decoractions and bleach them...
some even have a cycle of decorations, every other month for example swap the dirty ones with the clean ones etc...

it does look awesome, but yes cleaning might be a pain in the bum

Tarantur · Jul 18, 2014

I just repaired the corals on. Y reef. When they get rally dirty I take them out and bleach them with half water half bleech.

ajtomase · Jul 30, 2020

Tarantur said:
I just repaired the corals on. Y reef. When they get rally dirty I take them out and bleach them with half water half bleech.

Dang! where did you get those corals from?

Pntbll687 · Jul 30, 2020

EnLight said:
Not sure if that's the correct term for it, but seeing how I have coral-unfriendly fish, I've been working hard to find a replacement to coral instead of just stacking some brown rocks around. I've looked all around for silicone corals, artificial corals, etc. I finally put a few hours aside and did a ton of drilling, glueing, and rearranging to come together with this. I still have some much needed live rock in there of course but I'd love to hear some feedback to see what I can improve on!

Full view:

Closeup of the main structure with numerous artificial corals drilled/glued onto it

Live rock "cave"

All suggestions and feedback welcome! I'd love to see some of your "artificial" tanks for ideas, pictures are highly encouraged

I'm usually not fake coral fan, but this actually looks REALLY GOOD! You did a great job with the aquascape.

As for cleaning you can remove the decorations and scrub them with a stiff bristle brush to get 90% of the stuff off. You may need to actually clean them with bleach/water or vinegar/water every several months.

Make sure you add some biomedia to the sump for more bacteria growth. The decorations will grow bacteria on them, but if you need to do a heavy cleaning you'll lose a lot of the bio filter. Adding some media or live rock to the sump would help make sure your system can still process the ammonia from the animals when the decorations are removed for cleaning.

BeltedCoyote · Jul 30, 2020

Man, that looks better than most professionals. Awesome job. (And I’m someone who can’t usually stand the look of artificial corals)

Aries360 · Nov 3, 2022

EnLight said:
Not sure if that's the correct term for it, but seeing how I have coral-unfriendly fish, I've been working hard to find a replacement to coral instead of just stacking some brown rocks around. I've looked all around for silicone corals, artificial corals, etc. I finally put a few hours aside and did a ton of drilling, glueing, and rearranging to come together with this. I still have some much needed live rock in there of course but I'd love to hear some feedback to see what I can improve on!

Full view:

Closeup of the main structure with numerous artificial corals drilled/glued onto it

Live rock "cave"

All suggestions and feedback welcome! I'd love to see some of your "artificial" tanks for ideas, pictures are highly encouraged

What about running copper

Aries360 · Nov 3, 2022

Aries360 said:
What about running copper

When I was running copper in my display tank I never had to clean the glass

jft · Nov 3, 2022

Awesome I have used artificial corals many times from Ocean Aquaria and rocknreef , Easy to keep clean if YOU know what you are doing. People love the FO tanks when they come over. I got bored with real corals after 25 years and I am MORE of a Fish guy.