Additional information
by Arnold Kuntz Ph. D. (Author)
A reef aquarium or reef tank is a marine aquarium that prominently displays live corals and other marine invertebrates as well as fish that play a role in maintaining the tropical coral reef environment. A reef aquarium requires appropriately intense lighting, turbulent water movement, and more stable water chemistry than fish-only marine aquaria, and careful consideration is given to which reef animals are appropriate and compatible with each other.Simply put, a "reef tank" is the closest thing to the reefs in the ocean that you can put in a glass box. Due to the size difference, the things you put in your reef tank have to get along with each other. In the ocean, a species being predated by another can move or migrate to a safer area. In a closed system like your 55g tank, the opportunity to flee is greatly limited. For this reason, the critters that you put in your reef tank have to be able to cohabitate peacefully.
