Best Reef Literature
 

I only own one book dedicated to the hobby so far....Borneman's Aquarium Corals. It is the best investment I've made. I'm also planning to buy Caltho's Reef Invertebrates.

Any other suggestions??

Delbeek & Sprung's 3 volume set "The Reef Aquarium". I've never even seen a copy...let alone leaf through it, but I hear it's "The Bible".

One of these days......:sad:.

Cheers,

If you want a good invert book, Ive heard good things about "Crustacea Guide of the world" by Helmut Debelius. I plan to buy it one day.

Reef Aquarium vol 3. is a great book. Lots of information on setting up a reef aquarium, equipment etc.

Reef Invertibrates and Aqaurium Corals are great books, I also think Corals - A Quick Reference Guide by Sprung is worth noting too.

The reef aquarium series is very good. You can get them from Chapters online or Amazon for decent prices.

Are the Reef Aquarium volumes just updated versions of the previous? Or is each volume worth owning?

Good question. I got volume 3 for my birthday, and just finished reading it this weekend.

Currently volume 2 is only available on Chapters.ca. I looked cause I wanted to buy today. :D

PocketExpert Guide: Marine Invertebrates by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D.

cheap, and quite good. Fairly recent, too (c) 2003.

I also have to put in for Marine Fishes by Scott W. Michael, 2001. Good reference guide mostly for photos. Good point to remember though is that the images published are all the most unique that can be found, e.g. the Regal Tang on pg. 388 shows the yellow belly version, not often seen in the hobby.

Each one is separate, concentrating on different topics.

Vol 1. Stony corals and clams
Vol 2. Soft corals and anemones
Vol 3. science art and technology of building aquariums.

I have vols 2 and 3. Too wordy for me, I just looked at the pictures :wink:



I'd recommend the Conscientious Aquarist by Bob Fenner and definitely get Calfos Marine Inverts book. I can't wait till they release the new one.
Marine Fishes 500 essential to know aquarium species by Scott Michael is one of the most often read books in my collection. Its practically falling apart :mrgreen:

I have that one, too. pretty good.

Here's a list of a bunch

The Reef Aquarium, Vols. 1, 2, and 3 Delbeek and Sprung
Corals (A quick reference guide) Julian Sprung
Invertebrates (A quick reference guide) Julian Sprung
Modern Coral Reef Aquarium, Vols. 1,2,3,4 Fossa and Nilsen
Reef Secrets Fossa and Nilsen
Fishes and Coral (same publisher as above) Brockman
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist Robert Fenner
Reef Invertebrates Calfo & Fenner
Aquarium Corals Borneman
Natural Reef Aquariums J.Tullock
Water Chemistry for the Marine Aquarium J.Tullock
First Marine Aquarium J.Tullock
Clownfish and Sea Anemones J.Tullock
Marine Atlas, Vol. 1, 2, 3 Baensch
Giant Clams Knop
Marine Aquarium Reference, Systems & Inverts Moe
The Marine Aquarium Handbook Moe
The Captive Reef Dana Riddle
The New Marine Aquarium Paletta
Live Sand Secrets B.Goemans
Protein Skimming & Activated Carbon Secrets B.Goemans
Marine Algae Control Secrets B.Goemans
Sand Bed Secrets R.Shimak
Reef Fish Identification Humann
The Marine Aquarium Mills

We should make this thread into a sticky for new reefers!

My library is limited but I like and use these four books

Marine Reef Aquarium Handbook, Dr. Roberty J. Goldstein (Barrons books)
Aquarium Corals, Eric H. Borneman
Clownfish, Joyce D Wilkerson
Reef Life (Natural History and Behaviors of Marine Fishes and Invertebrates), Denise Nielsen Tackett & Larry Tackett

and of course all the stickys on Canreef.

Doug

Is there one book that any of you would cite as a must have for the new reefer?

Being a newbie myself :biggrin: , I would say

The Reef Aquarium Vol. 3 Delbeek and Sprung
Natural Reef Aquariums Tullock
Aquarium Corals Borneman

Definitely can't go wrong with those.

So as a newbie still deciding what size and style of tank to invest in Volume 3 would be the place to start?

Yes, this book will prevent you from making some very expensive mistakes.

Can anyone recommend some good fish compatability charts or books? Better yet, fish and coral compatability charts or books?

I believe the Dr smith & foster website has a pretty good compatability chart that came in handy for me.

For those who are interested in coral id and taxonomy I would add another book-set to the list:
Corals of the world volumes 1 2 3 by J E N Veron
I give this set a very big 2 thumbs up.

i'm sorry i have to compare it to the bible....does it surpass Borneman's Aquarium Corals?? the only thing that could make it better is a species by species break-down....

I tried to pick up Vernon's books through my university bookstore, chapters, and amazon, but can't get it because its only available in the U.K. and Australia I've heard. Has anyone else had lucking finding it, or picking it up locally?

I've also heard recommendations on Staghorn Corals of the World; A Revision of the Cenus Acropora, by Carden Wallace Museum of Tropical Queensland. ISBN 0643063919. Again though, I haven't had luck finding it locally.

Calfo also has a new book coming out this year; Book of Coral Propagation. You can currently pre-order it here: http://www.readingtrees.com/sales_preorder_bocp.html. Since its new I haven't heard anything about how updated it is, or what has changed since the first edition.

Wai's did have a copy of the 3 volume set, if it's not still there he might be able to get another. $$:smile:

Do you mean Vernon's set?

Yes, Vernon's set, and also Amazon.com has it and they will ship it to Canada.

Thanks, I'll look into.

Try checking out Premium Aquatics....... they will also ship it via USPS so you only get charge $5 brokerage fee vs $35+ with UPS/Fedex
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...ory_Code=Books

Cheers,
Vic[veng68]

bump

I purchased Veron's from Marine Depot it came in perfect condition, I my 2nd edition copy of Calfo's Book of Coral Propagation (Hard cover) and wow it done way better than the first edition ,He added a lot more photos and seems like more info but I just started reading. One thing I must say about Veron's corals of the world the amount of corals described is staggering like over 100 pages on montipora

I finally got Calfo's book on Coral Propagation last week, and I also picked up Fartheree's Giant Clam book too. So far the Giant Clam book reads like an intro to post-secondary reading, but the photos are very nice.

what do you think the best book would be for the newbie reefer?

As a newb reefer myself I picked up this book recently and so far I think it's certainly worthwile. I don't have anything to compare it to though...:biggrin:

Lol. First hand information there. Lol. Anyone else?

The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Palleta. Doesn't really focus on reefing, per se, but IMO it is an excellent book on marine basics. My apologies re: this recommendation if your beyond that and indeed are looking specificly (sp?) for reefing lit.

On another note....and not sure if it's been mentioned yet....but the online mag "Reefkeeping". Fantastic! I just recently took the opportunity of printing off some 170 of these articles.....at work :redface: . If I can somehow save face on that....it was on weekends during slow times and 3/4 of them I printed in black & white. I ended up with 6 big binders of them. For me, nothing beats having a hardcopy in hand.

Cheers,

where is this online magazine (site)?

Go to reefcentral.com. You'll find it there.

I own this book and its the best of 5 books that I've read