Ultimate Marine Aquariums
- Thread starter lordroad
- Start date
I got my copy for dr foster and smith on there red tag sale. Not only was it a good read for the knowledge but it also had great illustrations, planning illustrations, and really shows how the hobby has progressed through the years from bleached coral with a UGF to live rock and skimming and alot more!.
Its a great book, for the begginer and expert imo. Just a fun book to read.
Its a great book, for the begginer and expert imo. Just a fun book to read.
Don't bother. Well actually you can as I would rate my copy as average but, I am one of the heretics who won't say yea to this as
1.Not all the tanks are very good really. Some are very recent setups, a lot of them actually onky have very young fish in them, no idea what to they do with the adults. This is kind of an issue with all the tanks being American - he could prolly knock out 60% of those tanks and put in some other peoples tanks, some german tanks and so on. There are some awesome tanks around, in the US, and the rest of the world, that are settled, have awesome aquascaping and so on, and they're not in there.
2. There is not enough detail in all honesty in how they're plumbed, how they'r set up, real details. Basically the setup list is a shopping list and no more
3. Lots, and I mean lots of out of focus photos
4. A lot of the tanks have mediocre aquascaping
Personally I would not buy this book if there was something else I wanted instead. Sorry, it's ok, but not that good. John Tullochs book is better, or get a copy of Fossa and Nilsson volumee 1.
If you want the history of the hobby this is defnitely NOT where to go.
#Apologies to Mike Paletta#
1.Not all the tanks are very good really. Some are very recent setups, a lot of them actually onky have very young fish in them, no idea what to they do with the adults. This is kind of an issue with all the tanks being American - he could prolly knock out 60% of those tanks and put in some other peoples tanks, some german tanks and so on. There are some awesome tanks around, in the US, and the rest of the world, that are settled, have awesome aquascaping and so on, and they're not in there.
2. There is not enough detail in all honesty in how they're plumbed, how they'r set up, real details. Basically the setup list is a shopping list and no more
3. Lots, and I mean lots of out of focus photos
4. A lot of the tanks have mediocre aquascaping
Personally I would not buy this book if there was something else I wanted instead. Sorry, it's ok, but not that good. John Tullochs book is better, or get a copy of Fossa and Nilsson volumee 1.
If you want the history of the hobby this is defnitely NOT where to go.
#Apologies to Mike Paletta#
I probably should have mentioned that this is the only marine book ive read so I cant compare it to anything. It brought about things I had didnt know about marine keeping but I have very little knowledge about other as I said before. I like the pictures in the book although many are hand drawn but those are just illustrations of equipment.
Wayne I definitely agree on the detail to how to hook things up like you said, it didnt explain that at all.
Ill stick with my opinion before that its a very good book for a true begginer (ie myself) and is a great first place to look to get started and a basic knowledge. I guess Id have to take back my previouse statment about its good for experts, because Wayne has shown that there are better books out there (that hope to read).
Lord if you want, Ill send you my copy so you can read it without buying it, and then when your done you can just send it back to me.
Wayne I definitely agree on the detail to how to hook things up like you said, it didnt explain that at all.
Ill stick with my opinion before that its a very good book for a true begginer (ie myself) and is a great first place to look to get started and a basic knowledge. I guess Id have to take back my previouse statment about its good for experts, because Wayne has shown that there are better books out there (that hope to read).
Lord if you want, Ill send you my copy so you can read it without buying it, and then when your done you can just send it back to me.
You're looking at the wrong book mate. Ultimate Marine Aquariums, not the New Marine Aquarium.
The book you have I rate as a beginner must have, the other definitely a luxury.
Do you have Fossa and Nilsson, or the Sprung/Delbeek books? These are the 'must haves' for the advanced aquarists, or A Calfos's book of Coral Prop.
The book you have I rate as a beginner must have, the other definitely a luxury.
Do you have Fossa and Nilsson, or the Sprung/Delbeek books? These are the 'must haves' for the advanced aquarists, or A Calfos's book of Coral Prop.
Well some of them are great - I reall like Terry Barthelme's tank, and I'd like to see some proper details on Richard Harkers. I'd say30, 40% of them are abxolutely top of the pile tanks. trouble is , some of the others aren't.
And it still doesn't deal with the inherent problems of the poor photo's and lack of real info on quite how these tanks are successful.
And the aquascaping on so many is so average, and as this is a subject Mike Paletta has criticised in other articles, I think so many that a whole lot of these tanks can be described as 'here's 50 corals jammed in a small space and arranged like a fruit stand'.
It's probably worth the 30 bucks, but it's not essential and he could have done better...
The market is open for a book of this type that succeeds. Fossa and Nilsson have a new book out that's similar , but is as much designed round the furniture, fittings - the fish themselves are there to look pretty, no more
And it still doesn't deal with the inherent problems of the poor photo's and lack of real info on quite how these tanks are successful.
And the aquascaping on so many is so average, and as this is a subject Mike Paletta has criticised in other articles, I think so many that a whole lot of these tanks can be described as 'here's 50 corals jammed in a small space and arranged like a fruit stand'.
It's probably worth the 30 bucks, but it's not essential and he could have done better...
The market is open for a book of this type that succeeds. Fossa and Nilsson have a new book out that's similar , but is as much designed round the furniture, fittings - the fish themselves are there to look pretty, no more
Well, blast. Only flipped through the book for five minutes, focusing on 2 or 3 aquariums. Thanks for the heads-up it's flawed.
I love reading about grandiose tanks and especially getting the skinny on how they operate and what the owners do to get their success. Wayne, would you say the fossa and nilsson book is better, cooler systems and better pics?
I love reading about grandiose tanks and especially getting the skinny on how they operate and what the owners do to get their success. Wayne, would you say the fossa and nilsson book is better, cooler systems and better pics?
No, the Fossa nad Nilsson book is pretty odd, and I wouldn't recommend anyone buying it before seeing. The Paletta book is decent enough, but it's just nowhere top of my list. You would probably get more value ofr money digging out tank of the month on reefcentral, ultimatereef, and if you can read german, dig out some of the German sites (don't recall the link sorry).
What you won't get from UMA is 'the skinny on how they operate and what the owners do to get their success' - that lack of detail is probably the biggest criticism of the book
What you won't get from UMA is 'the skinny on how they operate and what the owners do to get their success' - that lack of detail is probably the biggest criticism of the book