A
Anonymous
Guest
I picked this up at the LFS the other day since I am still working on my new 'ultimate' tank and wanted some ideas. I had read good stuff about this volume from a few other people and decided to give it a try. There are some truly awe inspiring tanks in the book (Including RDO members GScehimer and Len) and they give a clear concise listing of the equipment used, livestock, parameters and any special modifications the aquarist has done.
There are a whole range of methodologies covered from basic berlin setups, mud filtration, algal turf scrubbers, giant carlson surge devices, refugiums and variations thereof. I also liked the fact that they didn't just cover SPS dominated tanks but covered some nice variations with LPS, softies and even Wayne Sheng's FOWLR/Angel tank.
Now my issues with the book. Firstly, many of the pictures are HORRIBLE, out of focus, shaky, badly composed and hard to make out anything in them - I mean they are really bad. I would say about 1/4 of the photos in this book fall into this category. If you are going to spend money on a nice hardcover book like this , an 'ultimate' guide as it were, you would think they would include pictures a little more flattering. I tried to deduce if it might have been a printing problem but it looks like just sloppy pictures taken with a half megapixel camera. Did I say that many of the pictures suck? Also with the exception of David Saxby's phenomenal UK aquarium it seemed to showcase mostly north American tanks. No exotic Japanese reefs with their outrageous color and lighting schemes, no gorgeous European reefs for the most part. Also while there are some stunning tanks in a few fish / reef stores I felt he spent too much time on showcasing tanks in commercial establishements - I would have liked to have seen more hobbyist tanks. one more complaint there are not enough pictures of some of the plumbing, equipment and interesting 'guts' of these tanks that I was hoping to see , I would rather see clear pics of someones fish room than endless blurry pics of corals.
Having said that it's still a good read but the awful pictures and lack of hardcore reefgeek equipment / chemistry / maintenance information make it a mediocre book overall in my opinion.
Also very few of the pictures in the book are newer than 2001 and many of the tanks the most recent pics are 1998 or so - I understand the lead times with publishing but it already feels somewhat 'out of date' here at release.
There are a whole range of methodologies covered from basic berlin setups, mud filtration, algal turf scrubbers, giant carlson surge devices, refugiums and variations thereof. I also liked the fact that they didn't just cover SPS dominated tanks but covered some nice variations with LPS, softies and even Wayne Sheng's FOWLR/Angel tank.
Now my issues with the book. Firstly, many of the pictures are HORRIBLE, out of focus, shaky, badly composed and hard to make out anything in them - I mean they are really bad. I would say about 1/4 of the photos in this book fall into this category. If you are going to spend money on a nice hardcover book like this , an 'ultimate' guide as it were, you would think they would include pictures a little more flattering. I tried to deduce if it might have been a printing problem but it looks like just sloppy pictures taken with a half megapixel camera. Did I say that many of the pictures suck? Also with the exception of David Saxby's phenomenal UK aquarium it seemed to showcase mostly north American tanks. No exotic Japanese reefs with their outrageous color and lighting schemes, no gorgeous European reefs for the most part. Also while there are some stunning tanks in a few fish / reef stores I felt he spent too much time on showcasing tanks in commercial establishements - I would have liked to have seen more hobbyist tanks. one more complaint there are not enough pictures of some of the plumbing, equipment and interesting 'guts' of these tanks that I was hoping to see , I would rather see clear pics of someones fish room than endless blurry pics of corals.
Having said that it's still a good read but the awful pictures and lack of hardcore reefgeek equipment / chemistry / maintenance information make it a mediocre book overall in my opinion.
Also very few of the pictures in the book are newer than 2001 and many of the tanks the most recent pics are 1998 or so - I understand the lead times with publishing but it already feels somewhat 'out of date' here at release.
Like I said the other points were a minor quibble and if you can deal with the photos the book is a good purchase overall for the serious marine aquarist or even the armchair aquatic architect.
