FOWLR and Reef?

[ben72227]

i'm just sort of curious, but what are the MAIN differences betweeen FOWLR and a Reef tank? I mean from what i can see most reefs have LR, a few fish, with tons of sponges and anemones, shrimp, and other inverts. But doesn't the LR from TBS have all that stuff on it? I know the fiji lr doesn't have much of anything except coraline algae, but i see that TBS LR has a bunch of stuff like anemones, clams, sponges, etc.

So, (assuming the above) would'nt a FOWLR with TBS LR be a reef?

Sorry if i sound dumb, but hey, ima newbie.

Thanks.

[OrionGirl]

The main difference is that in a reef, you intentionally add, and maintain, for corals. Anenomes, bi-valves, etc are part of a reef or a FOWLR, but not the main goal. FOWLR often do not have light sufficient to support the photo synthetic inverts that are purchased deliberately and added to a reef setup. The fish stocked in a reef are also different--you wouldn't add a queen trigger to a reef, since the trigger would turn the corals into a buffet line.

Hitch hikers are part and parcel of a reef, and often enough to satisfy people's desire for invertebrates. But, there's a lot of cool stuff that will not come in as a hitch hiker--and some of the ones that do are not desirable (aiptasia, for example!).