Customer Reviews

The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium, Vol. 1

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

 

 

If you want a good read that takes you from how to set up a reef tank to what you can put in it, I'd recommend a different series: Delbeek and Sprung's "The Reef Aquarium" first.

A brief flip through the pages of this 3 volume series by Fossa and Nilsen wows you with its vast amount of information. But try to sit down and read it through or find anything on a specific topic and you can easily get lost.

On the plus side: lots of material on things you don't find elsewhere from what sort of things you might find on your live rock, particularly the often over looked microfauna, to a huge amount on crustaceans, with of course lots on hard and soft corals. The advice is sound and practical.

On the minus side: What is it with European aquarium books? Like most, the layout is cluttered and busy, busy, busy. It is often hard to follow the linear thread of topics, especially on the species factsheets which are tossed into the middle of multi-column text. That and other organizational issues made it hard for me to find information on specific topics. You are lost without the index and even then, the book is so comphrensive that you'll need to wade through 6 or 8 index references on most topics to find the information you want. Comprehensive, is all in all, a good thing but I find this book frustrating.

I'm a voracious reader and when it comes to reef aquarium books, I'll gladly read them 4 or 5 times to extract every last bit of information out of them. But this series left me disappointed. I only give it 4 stars because the information is vast and the authors are clearly knowledgable. I was tempted to give it less.

This book is an excellent guide to reef tank organisms and their upkeep. I bought this book after buying Delbeek & Sprung's and feel it is equal in quality. It goes into detail in areas such as water chemistry, algae, and ecosystems providing insight into valuable areas not covered in as much detail in D&S's book. A must have for serious reef aquarists.

I don't agree with Connor at all. The pair of Nilsen & Fosse books are easily on par with the Delbeek & Sprung books. I would not want to be without any of them: The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium volumes 1 & 2 contain more specific and technical information for the advanced aquarist, while The Reef Aquarium Volumes 1& 2 are more directed toward animal husbandry. Terry Siegel, Senior Editor and founder of Aquarium Frontiers.

I bought this book in a trip to Florida last year and get very impressed about it. I have never seen something so serious and complete about reef aquarium. It truly gave me scientific data that my (16 years) practical experience with aquariums couldn't do. It is also pleasant to read and full of nice pictures. I plan to buy Vol. 2, as well as Vol. 3 and 4 when these become available. I didn't read D & S books and they seem to be also fine. Even so, I would like to strongly recommend "The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium" to any reef aquarium lover.

This is an interesting book, and contains some impressive photographs, but I cannot imagine anyone would seriously compare it to Delbeek & Sprungs two books. It is much less comprehensive, is somewhat disorganized, and is not nearly as well reasoned. The authors give huge amounts of space to subjects of comparatively minor importance (algae species, for example). If you want one book that will tell you everything you need to know about reefs, this isn't it. If you already have every other reef book, this is worth a look.