Fo, Fowlr, whats up with these??

[Zack]

Can someone help me like explain the diffrence between these two. Why would you get one over the other? Any oppions on them?
Thanks for the help,
Zack

[Silkks11]

FO is a tank that contains no live rock. It gets it's bio filtration completely from a wet/dry. FOWLR are tanks that contain live rock. The live rock aids as another bio filter. One isn't better than another. it's basically preferance and what you would like to have as ur filtration.

[Zack]

I see, so today people have tanks with no LR? :o

[Silkks11]

yeah if you ever see tank with coral cut outs. The very expensive nice decorations for tanks, they have no benificial value towards the tank except to add color and make things look alittle brighter. These tanks contain very high powered wet/dry's, skimmers, uv's, ocean clears, and fluidized bed filters, things of this nature. The other type with using live rock you can use enough of it that it can actually be the filter of your tank and no need for a wet/dry. But it is still a good idea to use on even if u do have a tank with live rock in it.

[Telco Guy]

But it is still a good idea to use on even if u do have a tank with live rock in it.

Well, that is actually up for debate. Many people feel that Wet/Dry filters cause High Nitrate levels in the tank. The consensus now is to either remove the Biomedia all together or at least replace it with Live Rock. This allows the accumulation of both Aerobic and Anaerobic bacteria to handle the complete nitrogen cycle.

[Charles Poole]

Biological filtration is only one small aspect of the benefits of using Live Rock. It looks more natural, and if handled properly, will contain a countless amount of small fauna and crustaceans that will keep the tank cleaner, and provide a very natural food source for fish, inverts and corals.

In my experience there is a huge benefit to utilizing Live Rock over a wet dry. Also a wet/dry will not get rid of the end product of the Nitrogen cycle (Nitrate). Where as good cured Live rock can easily maintain a zero level of nitrate.

[Sajuuk]

crlkeep, what kind of bulbs do you use in your large reef tank?

[Charles Poole]

I run 6 x 160 watt VHO fluorescent bulbs on my 125 gallon tank.

4 super actinic and 2 actinic white... :)