The New Marine Aquarium Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide

[rottn]

...by Michael S. Paletta.

I posted this review in the old Review section on June 3, 2002 - but since Scrooge is getting rid of that area, thought I'd copy & paste my review into this new section...

What is it with SW books & long titles??? This is the first SW book that I bought. It came highly recommended to me by a fellow SW enthusiast. The book is separated into 7 chapters: 1. Getting Started 2. Saltwater Primer 3. Live Rock 4. Establishing a New Aquarium 5. Selecting Fishes 6. Feeding & Maintenance 7. Health The book is very easy to read and understand. It is written in "layman's terms", and has some excellent pictures/drawings to illustrate. Unfortunately, most of what is in this book, I already knew. There was very little information of substance that I was able to draw from this book. Please don't get me wrong! I do not regret for a moment buying the book. It's an excellent book to have around for reference. And I truly enjoyed reading it! It's just that I had researched SW/reef aquariums for probably 3 or 4 months PRIOR to buying this book, so had alot of this information already. It's an excellent beginner's book! Somebody just starting to learn this hobby, that doesn't have the time to surf the web for hours like I do :tongue: would probably get a lot out of this book!

I would rate this book 2 1/2 out of 5.

[Flipper]

This was the very first book I purchased. In fact it was my first salt water purchase! I new nothing about the SW hobby at the time except how difficult it was. When I was done with the book, I knew it was not as difficult as I had perceived, and I knew I could do it. It’s well written, easy to understand, and as rottn said, a good reference book. The most noticable thing to me that it does not cover is the DSB. Nonetheless, I would recommend it to anyone who’s starting out or considering the SW hobby.

[Scrooge]

Want to post your review in yet another new section?

Here is the entry for this book in the new reviews section.

[DaveK]

The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta is an excellent book on state of the art reef systems. This book covers a lot of basic general information and is an excellent book to start your reef library with.

I have to give the author a lot of credit for coming out against the use of undergravel filter systems in reef tanks, and explaining why. Too many other books, even recent ones, don't do this.

Unlike a lot of books published by TFH, this book is NOT ten pages of information and a 300 page catalog of fish. The 144 pages of the book is packed full of good information, and it's section on fish selection even tells you what fish to avoid.

The other thing I like about this book is that it's a "how to" book, and doesn't spend pages on types of SW systems that are either obsolete, or very few people use.

The only area that I felt the book didn't cover was the use of berlin type sumps, in place of trickle filters. Refugiums are not covered, but they are a subject that is really not introductory.