Martin Moe, Jr. is the pioneering marine biologist and fish aquaculturist that largely shaped the marine aquarium hobby (and particularly marine ornamental breeding) into what it is today.  His watershed books in the early to late 1980s to early 1990s helped elevate our hobby from casual pastime to a modern science-based avocation.

Moe has written many books and articles (including  articles for Advanced Aquarist).  His two most notable publications are The Marine Aquarium Handbook (the all-time bestselling saltwater aquarium book covering beginner topics all the way to breeding) and The Marine Aquarium Reference: Systems and Invertebrates (the bible of advanced marine aquarists everywhere for the greater part of two decades). Both books contained huge amounts of detailed information yet are extremely easy and delightful to read (even read front to back like a novel).

In 2009, Moe released the third edition of The Marine Aquarium Handbook by updating and expanding the original publication. Now The Marine Aquarium Reference is getting the same treatment after being out of print since 2000.

Moe will release the expanded and updated edition of The (New) Marine Aquarium Reference as a five volume ebook series, with the first volume The Chemical Environment available to download now for only $5.99.  To give you an idea how much new information the new volume (and series) will contain:

• The first volume (of five) is 229 pages long.  For comparison, the entire original book is 512 pages long.
• The first volume is essentially the first chapter of the original book with 180 more pages of information.
• Volume contains 92 sections. “The chapters include the Marine Environment, An Aquarist’s Perspective, Water, Composition of Natural Seawater, Composition of Captive Seawater, Salinity, Methods of Salinity Determination, Specific Gravity, including conversion factors, Titration, Conductivity, Refractive Index, Salinity Levels in Marine Systems, Distribution of the Elements in the Sea, The Elements, Major, Minor, Trace, and Ultra Trace, Avogadro’s Number, Natural Sea Water, Artificial Sea Water, Trace Elements, The Role of the Elements, 49 Elements of Interest to Marine Aquarists, 11 Methods for Maintenance of Calcium and Alkalinity, Alkalinity Replacement (Sodium Bicarbonate/ Sodium Carbonate Addition), pH, Dissolved Gasses, Dissolved Organics and Nutrients, Redox Potential, and References.”

According to Smashword (where you can purchase Volume 1: The Chemical Environment), “The other four volumes are Volume II: The Physical and Biological Environment, Volume III: Elements of Marine Aquarium Systems, Techniques and Technology, Volume IV: Marine Aquarium Systems, Foods and Feeding, and Volume V: Marine Invertebrates, The Organization of Life in the Sea. These additional volumes should be available by 2015.”

Moe cautions in his preface of Volume 1: “The (New) Marine Aquarium Reference is not an ultimate, up to date, completely comprehensive reference to marine aquaristics.”  And while it is true that this book series will not cover everything the modern aquarist will want to learn (especially discussions about technology and latest trends), we think Moe may be a tad too humble. 25 years ago, The Marine Aquarium Reference served as the benchmark for which other aquarium reference books have been measured by, and it looks like The (New) Marine Aquarium Reference will continue that legacy.