Good Books?

brianrish

Member
I have been wanting to start a salt water aquarium for a long time having had great sucess with fresh water aquariums currently and in the past.
I have learned a lot from this forum already, but wanted to know of some good books that have an easy to understand, step by step guide to getting started.
Seeing the expert advice that you all give, I am sure you all can recommed some good books to get me started.
Thanks in advance and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
 

carrie1429

Active Member
I would reccommend the "Conscientious Marine Aquarist" (Robert M. Fenner) This book tells basically everything on how to setup saltwater and more. Of all the books I've read on saltwater this one is the best.
 

terrence

Member
Hi Bri......a great book is 'The complete idiot's guide' by Mike Wickham. A VERY important book is my 'Marine Fishes" by Scott W. Michael. The idiot's guide is great to use in setting up and cycling your tank but the guide book on fishes can save you a lot of head/heart aches and $$$$$.
First of all....be PATIENT!!!!!!!! Allow plenty of time for your tank to cycle. Then add new fish SLOWLY......maybe 2 a week. And read about all the fish before you buy!!!! The 'Marine Fishes' tells you what the fish eat, how they get along, how difficult they are to keep alive....and most importantly.....how BIG they will grow!!
My first time out.....i put too many new fish in my recently cycled tank....most of them died. Then I purchased a $7 and $60 fish... only to sit there and watch the $7 fish swim by with the $60 fish in his mouth!!!!! Ouch.....then I bought some fish on special at Petcos.....they were diseased (it seems the last person to show up for work had to maintain the tanks!!)....and that killed oof the rest of my tank. My $1000, 75 gal, Fish only tank was empty, full of diseased water, and my $500 worth of beautiful Saltwater fish were gone!!!!!
A year later.....I'm giving it another go.....I'm MUCH MORE patient, and MUCH< MUCH MORE intelligent. The Saltwater tank is my pride and joy!!!! I still have my 30gal freshwater, too. But don't confuse the ease of a freshwater tank as thinking marine tank is as easy......but don't be afraid either!!!! GO FOR IT, GOOD LUCK!!!
 

Originally posted by Carrie1429
I would reccommend the "Conscientious Marine Aquarist" (Robert M. Fenner) This book tells basically everything on how to setup saltwater and more. Of all the books I've read on saltwater this one is the best.

Agreed, although I dont read much and skimmed through a couple of books the Conscientious Marine Aquarist has been the most informative and helpful.
 

ekclark

Member
I currently have six books I pick nuggets out of, but my favorite is Natural Reef Aquariums by John Tullock. It is a few years old, maybe five, but it really helped me. When looking at books, try to get recent works...things change in this hobby pretty quickly. As for coral books...I own Corals for the Mini-Reef Aquarium by Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod. It helped to bring me into the coral world and is very readable. HTH!
 

p_apac

Member
the book corals is a good book for identifiyng and good pics if i remember right but not good as to tell you what to do.
 

jja

Member
I read a lot before starting and I have to agree with Carrie1429-excellent book for beginers. While I do not agree with all of it, it is a grat book to start with. I still flip through it all the time.
 
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