Will coral thrive?

I currently have a 55 gal. tank with artificial coral and reef rock.You may have seen these....they are the "plug and play" from Living Color Enterprises. I did this to reduce the initial cost of a saltwater tank. I didn't think I would ever want to "Deal with" living coral and now have a fish only tank. The live rock was not important to me due to my sump system and this set up they offer looked and still looks as if I have live coral in my tank, at least the hard corals do. I was wanting to slowly intertwine the replicated coral with live coral until eventually only have live corals. Can the corals survive and thrive with out live rock? The base rock is a casted material that feels and looks like live rock, but does not have the porosity of live rock. I know the current set up is not ideal, but I don't want to re-start it all over with live rock and the curing process.....not to mention the added cost of the live rock (Boy is this stuff high!!!). Any feedback would be helpful.....thanks!

 

What is the base rock casted out of?

As for live rock, you don't really need any if you use dead, base rock but it will take a while for that rock to become encrusted with coralline so you'll have to deal with white rock for a while.

 

I talked to the makers and they said it was a poly resin. The cast was made from true live rock it has the surface of a live rock but is not porous like live rock. I understand that live rock is the preferred but with this mistake can I still go on with a productive system as is and not start over with live rock with what I have now. My parameters are great with a 4 month old tank (Ammonia = 0 Nitrite = 0 and Nitrate = 15ppm). I don't see any reason why my setup will not work as is.....but being new to saltwater/reef systems I was wanting to get a reply from you experts or at least seasoned veterans. Thanks again!

 

I've seen that kind of cast before and it looks pretty cool. Now, assuming that this poly resin is reef safe, I question whether or not you'll have enough surface area on the fake rock to glue live corals too, unless you only plan on keeping corals that can be kept on the sand bed? I'm also wondering what kind of lighting you've got because in order to keep live corals, you'll need moderate to intense lighting. Also, reef tanks require very pristine water so if you increase your fish bioload when you go reef, you might not have enough surface area for bacteria to grow. You don't HAVE to buy expensive live rock to have a reef system. There is a cheaper alternative that I mentioned before in the form of dead, base rock.

 

This really does not help you much with your question...but for what it is worth, that is some cool looking fake live rock.

 

Thank you all.....I agree I should have went the live rock method. But I am not a patient person (something really valuable in saltwater/reef keeping) and I wanted a reef systen NOW and didn't think I was going to want to keep corals. I am not going to go all out and if I do...well I will set up another tank. What I am planning on doing is supplementing the fake coral with live coral such as easier kept corals like mushrooms, ricordea, pumping xenia, and other small surface and easier care corals. As far as the lighting I have a 4X65W retrofit power compacts with 4XActinic blue lights. I believe I have enough lighting for moderate lighting needs. As far as the surface area goes.....I have a 10 gal. sump that is holding lava rock, and 8 of those bath scrubbies you may use in the shower (great surface area). Thanks again for your help and any other help you can share I would be glad to hear and put into use!