The Reef Aquarium Volume Three: Science, Art, and Technology by J. Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung
http://www.amazon.com/Reef-Aquarium...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321167990&sr=1-2
what this book is not:
it does not discus care for individual fish or inverts though does discus macro algae and "clean up crew critters" a lil bit
what it is:
discusses everything from filtration to lighting to aquascaping to anything else with the setup of a reef aquarium. i have noticed with other books that you notice an authors definite preference in how they do something and everything else is discussed much less....this book discusses everything and even subsets and variations of everything
it is also a bit expensive, used or new its in the mid $50's......but if you really are interested in the minute details of how to make a reef aquarium work it is nothing short of excellent, closer to a upper college level text book at times than a general hobbiest book but its easy to read and understand....
do you need it to succeed? no, ive got less detailed books on the shelves that will get you where you want to be....but if your a tinkerer like i am and are interested in minutia than it is a must have and worth every penny and far better than any sort of similar books ive looked at....gives you a real solid foundation on a huge variety of styles of making a reef tank work and giving you a solid platform to dive off of for your own experimentation....
i will be buying Vol.1 and 2 that deal more with corals......this book impressed me greatly and cant wait to buy the other two volumes, plus they are a bit cheaper
http://www.amazon.com/Reef-Aquarium...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321167990&sr=1-2
what this book is not:
it does not discus care for individual fish or inverts though does discus macro algae and "clean up crew critters" a lil bit
what it is:
discusses everything from filtration to lighting to aquascaping to anything else with the setup of a reef aquarium. i have noticed with other books that you notice an authors definite preference in how they do something and everything else is discussed much less....this book discusses everything and even subsets and variations of everything
it is also a bit expensive, used or new its in the mid $50's......but if you really are interested in the minute details of how to make a reef aquarium work it is nothing short of excellent, closer to a upper college level text book at times than a general hobbiest book but its easy to read and understand....
do you need it to succeed? no, ive got less detailed books on the shelves that will get you where you want to be....but if your a tinkerer like i am and are interested in minutia than it is a must have and worth every penny and far better than any sort of similar books ive looked at....gives you a real solid foundation on a huge variety of styles of making a reef tank work and giving you a solid platform to dive off of for your own experimentation....
i will be buying Vol.1 and 2 that deal more with corals......this book impressed me greatly and cant wait to buy the other two volumes, plus they are a bit cheaper