I am looking for reference books for reef aquarium with LR & LS and comtemplating the following titles:

• The Coral Reef Aquarium By Dr. Ron Shimek
• The New Marine Aquarium By Michael S. Paletta
• Natural Reef Aquarium by John Tullock

Should I choose one of these or all as they are all complementary to each other? Any other recommendation?


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Ken

[This message has been edited by ccyflai (edited 03-22-2001).]

Hi ccyflai [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]
Welcome to Reefland

The shimek one definately if you are interested in LS aspects....he is very knowledgeable in that area IMO. the 2nd book I dont know much about. The tullock book is NICE I have that one [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img] If you are interested in all around reef aspects then may I suggest Volumes 1&2 of The Modern Reef Aquarium by Charles Delbeek & Julian Sprung. HTH

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Hi Ken ~

I have all three of those. Skip the Paletta book because it is aimed at the new "marine" aquarium owner... meaning a fish-only system. Both the Shimek book and the Tullock book are excellent first books about reefkeeping.

I would also highly recommend Robert Fenner's Conscientious Marine Aquarist, even though it is heavily slanted towards marine tanks rather than reef tanks. It has a great deal of detailed information on fish with a lot of beautiful photographs.

Another excellent book is Clownfishes by Joyce Wilkerson. Those would definitely be a great foundation. After you have read those, you might want to consider the Delbeek and Sprung two-volume set, The Reef Aquarium, or the even better and more detailed series, The Modern Coral Reef Aquarium by Fossa & Nilsen--this series is presently 8 volumes, the first 3 of which have already been translated into English. Volumes 4 and 5 are expected to be released in English later this year.

If you are interested in Tridacnid clams, I recommend Daniel Knop's Giant Clams. An excellent reference work on corals would be J.E.N. Veron's brand new 3-volume set Corals of the World. A good book on corals and their care would be the new Eric Borneman book Aquarium Corals: Selection, Husbandry and Natural History.

There are others, but that should keep you busy for a couple of years, at least. [img]/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]

Ninong [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

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Irrational Exuberance!

I have the book by John Tullock. I personally thought it was a great book with lots of information.

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Air goes in and out, blood goes round and round. Anything different is a bad thing......

Ninong has the same opinion I do so I won't repeat it but just endorse it. Start with Shimek and Tullock and work your way up. The Wilkerson book is really good. It is possibly the best book on how to keep fish I have read.