Saltwater no live rock or live sand. Can it be done?

Plus it just plain looks better than fake sh$&. Gotta be careful but people sell their setups on craigslist all the time great place for deals.

 

Actually beneficial bacteria will grow on most any surfaces.The glass,fake plants,and fake rocks. The reason these fake decorations are not as good as LR is they are not as pourous meaning less room for bacteria to colonize. However as long as you have enough surface area and a little smaller bioload it is indeed possible to do a tank in this manner and cleaning the filter regularly should have little impact on the overall population of Bacteria. Also if bioballs are kept in a filter all you would need to do is remove them while cleaning the filter and you would not harm whats living on them. Would I do it? No I wouldn't because I like the natural look of LR and cleaning the fake decorations will cause you to lose alot of the bacteria (depending on the kind of decoration and if you mind it getting covered in algae).