Customer Reviews

The Marine Reef Aquarium

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have looked through several books at the bookstore before buying this one. It is easy to read and as the author states a practical guide for keeping a reef aquarium. I would say this is more for beginners not those of you with experience. For my interests, he has discussed every issue about starting and keeping an aquarium. Even went over almost all the fish I was interested in. Beautiful pictures too.
Anyway, well worth it for me.

Worth the purchase price -- but by no means the only book on the subject you need in your library. If you're new to the hobby -- this book is current and provides an excellent reference. If you have some experience, this book won't add much to your knowledge base.

I think this book is a great guide to starting/maintaining a marine reef aquarium. The information and pictures are new and up to date. I couldn't have asked for more.

PROS:
- nice photos of tanks and reef (which makes me realize how crowded our aquariums are compared to the wild)
- almost current: published in 2008 and talks about refugiums and ecosystem biological filtration refugium that most other books do not
- fish length you want is the best way to determine what tank size to get
- talks about maintaining refractors to measure salinity
- explains water movement
- talks about HLLE disease and how to fix it
- talks about automatic water top-off
- explains sump and how to prevent overflow
- another good book is "The New Marine Aquarium" by Michael Paletta although that's published in 2001
- refugium: talks about how different kinds of sand at different depths for different purposes. Also talks about algae caulerpa but it did not mention chaeto (which is better).
- explains powerhead positioning

CONS:
- almost current: doesn't talk about LED lighting and how they compare to T8 flourescent lights
- doesn't talk about needed additives to keep fish from getting HLLE such as selcon and vitachem
- Disease: didn't talk about lympho (cauliflower looking)
- tank selection: explains pretty well but didn't mention the importance of a tank's footprint as opposed to gallons
- Refugium: didn't talk about what algae is better: Chaeto versus caulerpa.
- Refugium: didn't talk about Hang-On back refugiums and benefit of not chopping up your copepods as they flow back to the main display tank for food.

BACKGROUND: Been doing saltwater FOWLR since 2000 (no experience with corals). I have a wide 100 gallon acrylic (48" long x 24" wide x 20" tall) saltwater aquarium (2 36 inch T8 flourescent) with 1" live sand, 100 pounds of live rock, and 12 fish:
- 5" sub adult Emperor angel
- 4" Singapore angel
- 3" flame angel
- 4" hippo tang
- 3" yellow tang
- 2" scooter blenny
- 2" red hawkfish
- 3" yellow wrasse
- 3" filefish
- two 2" perculia clown
- 3" orange lyretail anthia
- 2" royal gramma

Equipment: Cascade 1500 canister, Reef Octopus BH2000 protein skimmer, two Koralia Evolution 720 powerheads, inline Aqua UV 15 watt sterilizer, inline Hydor 300W heater. 2290 gallons water turn over per hour.

Water: live rock is arranged as an island in the middle (with 3 large tunnels for a place to sleep) so fish has swimming room around tank's perimeter, Nitrate is 15, salinity 1.023-1.025 (ocean's 1.026-1.027), phosphate .05, 10% weekly water change with tap water (nitrate is 10 to start with) filtered by charcoal and floss, temp 77 winter - 83 summer.

REGRETS: I would like to keep a pair of cleaner shrimp to keep other fish healthy but they get eaten by my red hawkfish and filefish. Noisy, useless, and ugly pump in your tank (which also adds heat) AquaC Remora protein skimmer.

My skill level is "A guy who used to have a fish/live rock tank 15 years ago" and I wanted to get up to date on current ideas/technology. I read this in about a week and I learned a great deal. I bought a new 90g tank with a refugium (which I've never had) and I think this book did a great job of preparing me for taking care of it. I recommend keeping a highlighter/notes handy as well.

I highly recommend this for anyone thinking of getting into the saltwater reef tank hobby. The information is very well laid out, easy to read, and from cross checking is also accurate. An updated version discussing the ins and outs of LED lights would be nice but since LED's are just getting to market in mass amounts, and at a price that actually makes them affordable, it's understandable that there could be a year or two delay as LED requirements are discovered. This will make a great ongoing reference book as well as an attractive coffee table book!

This book has a lot of good information if you are doing a first time setup, or are new to reef aquariums. The information is very current, and the book has lots of great pictures and diagrams. If you are thinking about getting into the hobby, or are a beginner and need some direction this is a must read! Most experienced reefers will not get a lot out of this book other than some nice pictures and some info here and there, but it would make a great coffee table book so your friends and family who visit can quickly understand your reef.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone thinking about setting up their first marine tank. Well written and laid out, this book goes over the basics to starting a reef tank and even includes some info about more advanced things. My personal fave is the fact they included a chapter on pests and how to get rid of them... including mantis shrimp, which I have yet to see in a book like this.

Its hardcover and full of pages of colorful pictures and diagrams, and is a pleasure to read from cover to cover.

Please check out my other reviews for beginning marine aquariums at: [...]

Mr. Hunt's book is a great reference and an enjoyable read. Book is full of accurate helpful information, fantastic photography, and species identification. It is well suited to "reefers" starting out for the first time; and also contains sufficient information to keep the interest of those experienced in the hobby.