Coral Reef Forum

With salt water tanks people usually go either Reef or Fish Only With Live Rock (FOWLR). 

    FOWLR tanks are generally the easiest and cheapest way to go.  Since there will only be live rock and fish in the tank.

    The Reef tank is where you can keep your various types of LPS and SPS corals.  Although the reef tank is beautiful, i can become expensive to maintain.  Proper lighting, chemicals, and maintenance will be a must. 

Saltwater tanks are broken down into FO, FOWLR, and Reef setups. Fish only setups are excellent for beginners and for office and public setups. The purpose of this tank for beginners is to understand how to make saltwater and get use to saltwater fish. A level above this style of aquarium would be the FOWLR or fish only with live rock. This setup is easy but costly. It is the framework for any reef tank, but the live rock doesnt not only provide structure but also provides biological filtration. This tank would be the best start up for a beginner hoping to have an attractive yet natural look as well as future reef tank. Reef tanks are the hardest form of marine tank to keep. Reefs are made up of fish, rock, coral, inverts that all make up the reef environment. The problem is that corals will need high light requirements and knowledge of advanced marine chemistry. Which makes them attractive yet one of the harder tanks to keep. Beginners should never go with reef. When converting from FOWLR to reefs, you will need to have aged the aquarium for at least 4 months before you should try corals. Also again you will need to upgrade your aquarium equipment as well as knowledge.