Most realistic fake coral

[jfbhd4]

I have a 240 reef but am putting in an 800 gal fish only and want to have some fake coral in there that doesnt look like garbage. Any suggestions? Price is not a factor.

THank you!

 

[bobnicaragua]

Coral skeletons are what they used before we learned how to keep coral alive.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I remember using coral skeletons in my first ever fish only tank.
I think most still look fake, but the big guys in the business of commercial tanks would be where to start if not worried about price.

 

[3429810]

There is a company that 3d prints very realistic looking coral inserts. Can’t remember their name but hopefully google or someone here can help out.

 

[jfbhd4]

There is a company that 3d prints very realistic looking coral inserts. Can’t remember their name but hopefully google or someone here can help out.

Would be great to get this site. google search couldt find it

 

[EricR]

I know nothing but imagine it'd be a pain to keep them clean,,, unless you plan and setup in a way where they're easily removable (for cleaning)

 

[bobnicaragua]

If I was going to do a large fish only tank, (this is where the nerd comes exploding out like the Incredible Hulk!). I would do a crystal skull, shark jaw, sunken ship, or a full bodied pirate skeleton holding a bottle of rum!

 

[Jekyl]

What ever you put in will eventually be covered in algae one way or another.

 

[jDoSe]

Imo plain dry rock will look 100x better than any fake coral inserts. It will actually look natural and your fish will be in their natural habitat. You want a piece of the ocean, not a piece of plastic. Why not just get robotic fish? They make some realistic ones.

With rock, if you wanted, you could get super low-light corals, a cuc, inverts, etc. Can’t really do that with painted plastic. If you got rock, any grazing fish would appreciate it.

Not to mention the fake coral inserts get so filthy you will clean them nonstop. It only takes a short time for them to look dirty. Rock also increases biological filtration and you don’t really need to clean it (as well).

 

[kingoftheHiLLpeople]

The guys on tanked show use fake corals - maybe reach out to them?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Here is where I could see the "hated" beginner corals thriving and doing 2 things. If you put pulsing Xenia, gap, pandoras, and all of those other corals in there, they would act as a nitrate filter. Who cares if they go wild. All of these can live in lower light, if not a toilet with ambient light. If you have fish that eat them, so be it.

The above is just a thought, as any decoration is going to require a ton of maintenance and provide no benefit to the tank. I will say that when I had a puffer dedicated tank, the Xenia and pandoras were on the menu, but they could not eat them as fast as they grew. It also helped me keep nitrates around 10 and po4 around .1 with a small fuge ran reverse light, 10% bi-weekly water changes and an undersized skimmer.

In addition, you may even be able to trade some frags into your local LFS for some credit and use that to buy food or dry goods.

 

[Jekyl]

The guys on tanked show use fake corals - maybe reach out to them?

Those tanks are all basically props. They don't look like that after a few months.

 

[kingoftheHiLLpeople]

Those tanks are all basically props. They don't look like that after a few months.

Just answering OPs question. Up to them what they end out doing.

 

[AydenLincoln]

The guys on tanked show use fake corals - maybe reach out to them?

The company no longer exists due to a scandal also they got sued for not delivering services.

 

[jft]

Check out Ocean Aquaria and Montana mountain corals GREAT replicsa nd very reasonable pricing. I have them in all my tanks AND don t believe they get smothered with algae < If you have Excellent water parameters with H2o changes, skimming and Uv sterililizer the maintance is nil. I have RUN tanks going on 15 plus years with GREAT RESULTS. Good luck.

 

[kevgib67]

The guys on tanked show use fake corals - maybe reach out to them?

Your right, I remember seeing there video using those inserts.

 

[Waters]

The Tanked inserts were all made in house by their people. I don't think they ever sold them though.

 

[Sailaway]

I have a 240 reef but am putting in an 800 gal fish only and want to have some fake coral in there that doesnt look like garbage. Any suggestions? Price is not a factor.

THank you!

I’d stick to either just rock or coral skeletons.