The book that helped launch 1000 marine aquariums (and many more) is coming back greatly expanded in five ebook volumes. Martin A. Moe, Jr. is releasing The (New) Marine Aquarium Reference Volume I: The Chemical Environment in May of 2014. The original Marine Aquarium Reference: Systems and Invertebrates was first published in 1989 and sold over 80,000 copies. It has been out of print since about 2000, but used copies are still available and sought after. This first ebook volume, The Chemical Environment, is the first chapter of the original book and has been expanded with an additional 180 pages on the chemical environments of the sea and captive marine mesocosms. Volume I contains 92 topics, each is an easy to find chapter in the ebook format.
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.
When the original Marine Aquarium Reference: Systems and Invertebrates was published, Don Dewey, the editor and publisher of Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine commented
“The Marine Aquarium Reference is must reading for every marine aquarist and is, in my opinion, the quintessential reference for anyone interested in miniature reef type systems. There is a lot of information here for every level of aquarist–from beginning to professional, and the style of writing makes it truly enjoyable to read. This book deserves a place in every aquarist’s library.”
Times and technology have changed greatly since Don wrote this review, and many very good and extensive marine aquarium books have been written in the ensuing years, but the Marine Aquarium Reference: Systems and Invertebrates is a classic and is still useful and still available on the used book market. The five ebook volumes build on the foundation of the original book and are even more useful as a basic reference to the captive marine 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.
