putting plastics in salt water tank?

[zach jay]

my buddy just got his first tank setup from his girlfriend for christmas. 20g long, some pc lighting, filter, heater, etc.

she got him some plastic plants and one of those skulls you always see at petco. now no doubt she is going to want to see them in the tank, but he wants a salt water tank. i'm not sure how they would fare (i've just never seen them in a sw tank). she also has a lot of that colored gravel. i know people go from bare bottom, to crushed coral, to fine grained, to dsb, to even rdsb, so would this still be okay? just a little unorthodox? thanks a lot!

[zach jay]

christmas = birthday haha

[badwrasse]

the gravel is not ok

[sedor]

I wouldn't put any of that stuff in a SW tank, although if he has to, you can use PVC in a tank without any harm so I don't see what harm the decorations would do, besides uglying the place up lol.

And +1 on the gravel being unusable.

[Sisterlimonpot]

I think the reason you don't see so much of that in a salt water tank is because everyone follows suit and adds LR as their primary aquascaping. You'll have no problem adding that stuff to the tank however the question would be, "why would you?” Now, I've seen a picture of a saltwater tank that mimicked Spongebob's neighborhood, and I also saw one that mirrored the tank from Finding Nemo (they looked pretty good). So it all comes down to preference.

[sdc19982002]

Make sure none of the plants have the metal weights on them. You can use them with no problems. Why you would want to would be the ?

[Sisterlimonpot]

DP

[Ohiomom]

IMO the gravel if colored like you say will break down over time and begin to flake off..it does this in FW over time so would imagine in SW would be a pretty quick issue. I would at least minimally return the gravel for sand. Also double check that the skull is NOT painted have had some in a FW tank go bad so would be an issue in SW again. hth

[KillerReef]

Originally posted by Sisterlimonpot
I think the reason you don't see so much of that in a salt water tank is because everyone follows suit and adds LR as their primary aquascaping. You'll have no problem adding that stuff to the tank however the question would be, "why would you?” Now, I've seen a picture of a saltwater tank that mimicked Spongebob's neighborhood, and I also saw one that mirrored the tank from Finding Nemo (they looked pretty good). So it all comes down to preference.

Do you have links to those pics. Would love to see them...

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally posted by KillerReef
Do you have links to those pics. Would love to see them...

I wish I did. I tried searching for it but came up with nothing.

[badwrasse]

Originally posted by Sisterlimonpot
I think the reason you don't see so much of that in a salt water tank is because everyone follows suit and adds LR as their primary aquascaping. You'll have no problem adding that stuff to the tank however the question would be, "why would you?” Now, I've seen a picture of a saltwater tank that mimicked Spongebob's neighborhood, and I also saw one that mirrored the tank from Finding Nemo (they looked pretty good). So it all comes down to preference.

its painted gravel and not good for a salt tank your can't use this stuff unless it says for use with saltwater on the package but most of it says for fresh water use

also just because someone that probably didnt know any better did it doen't mean that its good to do we have know way of knowing how there tank is now or for the long haul.

[zach jay]

i looked on the bag, it said for fresh or salt. so pretty much its the paint on the gravel, the potential paint on the skull, and the potential metal on the plants? alright thanks guys