Artificial structures != live rock?

[phoenix20]

When my wife and I started our reef setup, she wanted "arches" in the tank as a decoration. I thought they were kind of dumb, but since I wanted her to feel included, we went ahead and dropped them into the tank.

Its not exactly the most natural looking aquascaping, but its a pretty large object. My question is -- does this provide the same benefit as a huge chunk of live rock? Of course we have "real" live rock in the tank, this is just an addition to the other objects.

The whole point of live rock is to provide a surface for bacteria to grow on -- right? Which I guess why they sell artificial rock like this?
http://www.marineandreef.com/Red_Sea_Live_Rock_Art_Artificial_Live_Rock_s/206.htm">http://www.marineandreef.com/Red_Sea_Live_Rock_Art_Artificial_Live_Rock_s/206.htm</a>

So, if I ever do decide to pull these dumb arches out -- is this going to cause bacterial chaos?

 

[kwl1763]

Eventually yes. It takes several months to a year to actually get the bacteria to totally colonize but yah it will be fine as long as you have real live rock in there also.

It depends on the actual structure though. If it's plastic or resin I would be worried it wasn't pourous enoguh. Live rock really works on the inside of all the pores and crevaces and if it's molded resin it may not have those.

Still with enough real live rock not neccessarily bad just don't expect it to have much nitrification/dentrification power!

 

[flyingarmy]

Since these are made of resin, and I doubt are porous, pulling them out at a later date shouldn't effect anything (except everything it was supporting )

 

[phoenix20]

Its a 65 gallon tank with about 50 pounds of live rock and the arches. I would like to eventually pull these dumb arches out and drop in another large quantity of rock -- although slowly -- just because from looking at other professional reef photos I know I could use more.

There is enough rock stacked up that creates caves and places for my hippo tang, neon goby, and royal gramma to hide in -- but if I ever want to give the mandarin goby another shot, I've read the pods need plenty of places to cultivate and grow.

 

[george]

The material probably isn't very porous (if at all) and may have aerobic bacteria on it, but it almost certainly won't host any anaerobic bacteria. That means it's kind of 1/2 live rock, for lack of a better term.

The live rock substitutes that come pre-painted are usually only for aesthetics and have the same limitation as your arches. True live rock substitutes are made from permeable substances such as cement or porous ceramic.