Can’t decide which brand branch rock I like best…help

[CincyReefer07]

Which of these 4 different brands of branch rock do you guys feel looks maybe the most natural or interesting/cool if going for a natural looking mixed reef tank? Trying to decide which I like best and am having an incredibly hard time deciding. My tank will be scaped with a mixture of dried out pukani live rock that I got from a tank that had been taken down years ago, new marco rock, and then I want to add in some branching rock to the scape to give it an interesting look. This will be for a 310 gallon display tank.

Setting price aside, these are the choices

First pictured is Tropic Eden
2nd is Cornerstone
3rd is Real Reef
4th is Carib-Sea Liferock

 

[Jekyl]

5. Kp, gulfliverock, rocknreef

I'm a sucker for the ocean stuff.

 

[Jekyl]

That being said, a combo of 1 and 3 could look good.

 

[WVNed]

I like 3

 

[MaxTremors]

2 looks the most nature, and I think 1 looks pretty natural too. Personally, I would get half of whichever one of these you like, and the other half get real liverock (KP, gulfliverock).

 

[CincyReefer07]

5. Kp, gulfliverock, rocknreef

I'm a sucker for the ocean stuff.

I love that stuff too, but to get what I need for a 310 gallon display tank would be outrageous plus you can’t get branching rock from them. I have been considering buying one or two pieces of Australian live rock as a show piece possibly from a guy that I know gets that imported. Only one or two because the cost of that is even more insane. I have the real pukani live rock, so that’s the natural ocean stuff, but it’s been dried out for 3 years, and I’ll mix that in with Marco rock and then some of this branch rock and also had planned on using the ocean-direct sand.

 

[CincyReefer07]

2 looks the most nature, and I think 1 looks pretty natural too. Personally, I would get half of whichever one of these you like, and the other half get real liverock (KP, gulfliverock).

I’ve considered it, although the biome test the BRS guys did with the real live rock kind of turned me off on it, but not completely. My only other concerns would be cost, I could get it, but that’s going to set me back a lot with the amount I’ll need for a 310 gallon tank and may not get around to stocking the tank as quickly as I’d like due to funds then, and the other concern would be pests, I’d hate for a tank of this size and this cost end up being overrun with pests. I do have about 80 pounds of real natural pukani rock from a tank breakdown, it’s been dried out for a years now, so it’s no longer “live”. And I did consider using ocean-direct sand in the tank as well

 

[vetteguy53081]

#3 is good stuff.
I personally have #4 in a particular tank and love it

 

[Tamberav]

Man 4 looks so bad when you compare it to the other options… Yeesh…

Someone here just did a scape with cornerstone and it looked really nice.

 

[JumboShrimp]

(Sorry for all the micro bubbles at the moment!)

I did a hybrid of your #4 rocks with busted-up other rocks glued randomly onto them to make very open ‘teepee’ like structures.

 

[CincyReefer07]

View attachment 2555685
(Sorry for all the micro bubbles at the moment!)

I did a hybrid of your #4 rocks with busted-up other rocks glued randomly onto them to make very open ‘teepee’ like structures.

View attachment 2555712

That looks really good! I like that! I honestly haven’t been the biggest fan of those, I’ve always felt they looked too simplistic and each one looks the same to where it doesn’t look natural either, but the way you did it really pulled it off really well

 

[rmorris_14]

I think it depends on how you want to orient it. I can tell you I have a piece of #4 and it super heavy and like cement. If you want to do gravity defying branches, I wouldn’t suggest it.

 

[polyppal]

Tropic eden is great to work with

 

[CincyReefer07]

Tropic eden is great to work with

Did you just recently get it? Are you just now working with it? I like the look of the branches, although the coloring at least in the pics seems a little off to me, as far as natural looking color, not that it would probably matter in a few years time once corals and/or coraline take over

 

[DeepintheReef]

The cornerstone and real reef look the best. I find the best results from mixing a few different brands’ pieces in with some natural branches if you can find them

 

[CincyReefer07]

The cornerstone and real reef look the best. I find the best results from mixing a few different brands’ pieces in with some natural branches if you can find them

I agree… im leaning more so towards cornerstone and Real Reef and maybe doing a mixture of the two

 

[Harold999]

Liked the branching rock too, but since somebody mentioned such scapes look like campfires i can't get that image out of my head.

 

[jcolliii]

4 is *super porous*, but heavy - and definitely not the comeliest of the bunch. 1 is coated with a quite glossy material, but when I cut a piece after it was immersed for a few days, it was wet inside, so there is apparently some porosity. I think 2 looks the best, but I think it's also the most expensive. You absolutely do not need any live rock. My cycle using 4 was over in days. The dieoff from LR will take longer than that to clear up. Just inoculate with good bacterial products - I used a combo of a couple - MB7 and Biospira with som Aquavitro thrown in for good measure.

 

[Jeeperz]

Not a branch thing but I have a tank setup with mostly Carib sea life rock but it has one small fist sized piece of real reef rock. That small piece of real reef grew Coraline at least a year before the Carib sea. It's been 100% covered since and the Carib sea has yet to be covered more than 50%. Just an FYI if you care

 

[CincyReefer07]

Not a branch thing but I have a tank setup with mostly Carib sea life rock but it has one small fist sized piece of real reef rock. That small piece of real reef grew Coraline at least a year before the Carib sea. It's been 100% covered since and the Carib sea has yet to be covered more than 50%. Just an FYI if you care

That’s good info to know… I’ve never really been a big fan of how the Carib-sea stuff looks out of everything that’s out there. Not sure which way I’m going to go, as far as the branch rock is concerned, I may do a mixture of small amounts of each.