Customer Reviews

Ultimate Marine Aquariums: Saltwater Dream Systems and How They Are Created

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Almost all aquarists, from novices to experts, would love to have a bigger tank. But the past 20 years have brought so many new techniques and types of equipment to the hobby of "reefkeeping" that it can be very challenging to determine what is truly the BEST way to keep a reef tank. How do the experts keep the inhabitants of their tanks as healthy and happy as possible?

"Ultimate Marine Aquariums" shows what a number of excellent aquarists have done to achieve their success. However, as Mr. Paletta points out, there is no single best approach, and you may find some of your assumptions overturned. Every tank shown in this compendium has excellent water quality, lighting, and circulation. But is it absolutely necessary to have undetectable phosphates or nitrates? Apparently not. Is it essential to have a system circulate all of it's water many times each hour, or to have 10+ watts of light per gallon overhead? Again, apparently not. Is it imperative to add special food for your corals? Actually, no.

What the book does clearly show is trends -- you are more likely to have success if you have more space, more circulation, more light, pristine water quality, and careful maintenance of certain parameters such as calcium levels and pH. You certainly don't need "Ultimate Marine Aquariums" to tell you that. Truly, the reason this book is so interesting is that it shows many approaches that can be used to achieve an excellent result.

The photography, as others have noted, is not first class. But it is adequate to show the scale of these breathtaking tanks, and many times there are also pictures of the equipment set-ups that hobbyists will find very interesting. While some pictures are of lesser quality, there are quite a few that are very fine, including close-ups of some amazing specimens. Also, the text is well written and edited, which, frankly, is more than you can say for quite a few books and magazines in the hobby.

I am not aware of any other book on this subject which has taken this valuable approach of surveying a large number of successful reef tanks and describing the details of their equipment, maintenance, and livestock. For that reason alone, this volume deserves a place on the bookshelf of any marine aquarium hobbyist.

In closing, I'd like to make a point about the hobby in general: the future of reefkeeping lies in aquaculture - the commercial breeding or propagation of the many animals we put in our tanks. Reefs worldwide are suffering from pollution, warming, and disease. The last thing these fragile ecosystems need is to be literally taken apart so that a hobbyist can have some "live rock" or coral specimens for a fishtank. We don't need to destroy the source of our fascination; our hobby has reached the point where the harvesting of live rock and coral is truly no longer necessary. Live rock can be easily created with concrete and aragonite, and seeded with live sand or "grunge" from commercial suppliers. The resulting articifial live rock will support microfauna that is hardier, more effective in metabolising nutrients, and more diverse than what you'd find on live rock from any one part of the ocean. Corals of many types can be propagated, and an increasing number of marine fish & invertebrates (clowns, seahorses, angels, gobies, tridacna, abalone, etc.) are now being tank-bred or tank-raised. I urge you, for the sake of your hobby and the reefs that inspire it, to limit yourself as much as possible to aquacultured specimens. For a wealth of information about creating your own live rock and propagating corals, check out www.garf.org.

This book is direct and clear. It has detailed descriptions, great pictures of fantastic marine aquariums, the equipment used, dimensions, water chemistry, etc.

If you need a resource to help you plan or gather ideas on a reef tank, this should be the first stop. A hobbyist could spend thousands of dollars experimenting in search for the right equipment, or use this book.

The book is elaborate enough for a novice to understand the concepts and technical requirements for a marine tank.

The only warning I would have is to the hobbyist who is looking for instructions on how to build a reef tank or details about equipment. This book does not elaborate on construction. But regardless, if you are already in the hobby its superb, if you've just started it will prove valuable. I consider this the back bone aiding in a comparative analysis of my own aquarium.

On top of that, the price of this book is really inexpensive for what you get.

It's wonderful to read about other successful systems. I enjoyed reading about the set-ups, what additives were used, the salt that was used. I also liked reading about what people liked and disliked about their own tanks. But the photography is awful. I mean, this is a picture book! Some of the photos are downright out of focus. I could take better photos with a throw away camera. My driver's license has better photography. I'm shocked that a book that is a "picture" book has such terrible photos. A lot of time must have been spent compiling all the information about everyone's tank, but no one took the time to send a professional photographer to take pictures. I often read this book to see what someone's set up is, but I never bother to look at it for the photos, which is a real shame, because saltwater tanks are a visual feast.

Michael Paletta's "Ultimate Marine Aquariums" has proven to be the most valuable book in my library of over twenty volumes on the subject of aquaria. Departing from the usual formats, this is neither a how-to book nor a zoological reference. It is a compendium of successful aquariums, with technical data and photos to describe their secrets. Think of it as a behind-the-scenes tour of some of the best aquariums ever built; from modest 55-gallon bedroom displays to commercial wundertanks.

Each section of the book is dedicated to a particular aquarium and provides a comprehensive list of critical data: volume, pump types and flow rates, filtration types employed, lighting types and wattage, dosers, chemical levels, etc. Discussions with each owner then flush out the unquantifiable; exposing past failures or special techniques employed, or simply the owner's achieving moment or favorite feature. And amidst it all, there are photos, photos and more photos, both behind the tank and in front of it.

How did this book turn my success with aquaria around? After two years of mixed success (read, "mixed failure") with my 230-gallon reef aquarium, I picked up Michael Paletta's book (only days after its release) and was immediately intrigued by some obvious trends among the described systems. It appeared that successful aquariums were pumping ten times the water volume recommended by others. Invigorated, I replaced our plumbing and, in a few months, realized drastic improvements. Corals that had not grown noticeably in nearly three years were budding! A year or two later, many have quadrupled in size.

Mr. Paletta's book fills a void for those of us who aren't aquarium pros and who might not have anyone to turn to for regular hands-on advice. If other aquarium how-to books tell a thousand words, then his book is a picture. Sometimes, you just want to see how the pros do it; real-world applications without the lengthy primers or general-purpose advise. "Ultimate Marine Aquariums" grants the reader this privilege.

This is a fun book. I enjoyed reading about the different ways people have succeeded with marine aquaria. We can learn a lot from each other. I sure would love to have access to the 20,000 gallon system described in this book.

I do have a couple of issues:

1. This is strictly an American book. Almost all of these tanks are in the USA. More tanks from other countries would have been interesting.

2. The info is rather old for a book just published in 2003. Much of the info is 3 years old or older and some of the tanks were quite young at the time. I'd love to learn how some of these tanks fared later. There was one small tank in particular that was ridiculously overstocked with fish that are not reef safe (most notably several triggers). It was only a few months old. I'll bet it has long since crashed.

This is one of the best aquarium books I own. It is great to see pictures of so many tanks with detailed info about their setup and equipment.

The complaints regarding the quality of the photography are not fair in my opinion. These tanks are not set up in a studio and it must have been a real challenge to take pictures with less than ideal lighting conditions in peoples living rooms. The photography is not as good as in Takashi Amano's books but they are good enough and this book is a pleasure to browse through.

I loved it!!! I was in the process of installing 3 aquariums in our house to recreate the reefs in our oceans and needed a little guidance. This book gives you specific info on 50 GREAT aquariums. The book provided me a base line of info in which to attain the perfect reef aquarium. A suggestion on different set ups and designs. What has worked for these folks and there reasons why or why not. I was able to get answers to 99% of the questions I had on everything from lighting to feeding. I only wish there was more info to collect from these pioneers. I hated that the book only covered 50 and not 500 aquariums. You will thank the author for writing this book after reading it!!

This is an interesting picture book to compare how other aquarists keep their tank. However, most of the aquariums included in the book are pretty average in today's standard. There are numerous more matured and better looking tanks over the internet forums not to mention almost all tanks are in the USA only. Many of the pictures are also very blur. I would be very interested to buy a second book of the serie covering more "Ultimate" aquariums and with better picture quality.

Excellent detail on many different types of systems along with photos, techniques and set up. If you are interested in marine aquariums then this is an excellent book.

As a new marine aquarist, I have been reading everything I can get my hands on. This has given me great ideas on what a marine aquarium should/could look like. I have a nano but if I can convince the other adult human in my home to get rid of the family room furniture, I too will have one of these great aquariums. It is a little dated, considering most of the pictures and stories are from the late 1990's and early 2000's.