who's used artificial rock?

[Friendly]

I'm curious to know what your thoughts are on your experience of using artificial rock. 

 

was it worth it? 

 

does anyone make artificial rock so that it fits tightly like a puzzle...or offer reasonable prices for custom creations?  

[Shark Fighter]

I've used Real Reef Rock (name's kinda ironic, huh?) in my previous tank and am still using it to seed the new rock in my current build. All I can say is anything that helps preserve real reefs is TOTALLY worth it, and it comes in some interesting and useful shapes. The only drawback is the color, although natural looking, seems a bit too uniform. Just don't mix it with another kind of rock and nobody will notice. It drills extremely easy and using some acrylic rods I was very easily able to make a nice archway for my tank. It's pretty light and they add some kind of pumice material to make it more porous. 

 

That at being said I also have had a bad experience with more substandard "live rock" that ended up just being heavy pieces of concrete, dipped in epoxy, and then spray painted, which then flaked off in the sandbed. Weirdly epoxy wouldn't stick to it and pieces were constantly breaking off and they stood out like a sore thumb. The whole experience was terrible.

 

Moral of the story is shop around. There's some good ones to be had but they're definitely not all created equal. The better ones will probably cost a little bit more than *real* live rock since they are made and not simply picked up off the ground but it's a worthy investment.  

[TheBig053]

I have real reef rock in my tank as well and have had no problems with it.  At first the purple color is a little too fake looking but as different kinds of film algae have grown on the rock its looking more and more natural.  One draw back is the price. Overall I am happy with it though. 

[Clown79]

I've used caribsea life rock. 

 

I liked it alot.

Easy to break, nice colour, no flaking, no issues with it at all. It was very clean too. 

 

Very nice shapes