Mark Henry wrote:

I'd like to start by asking for help with two things...

1. Can anyone suggest books, magazines, forums, and/or websites
that will help in the education process?

2. Next, I'd like help picking out my equipment. Due to space
considerations I'd prefer to stay with a rectangular tank. While
a 125g is certainly do-able, for some reason I'm being drawn to
a 220g - which *might* be too deep at 30"???

Hi Mark,

Here are a couple of E-zines that are very much worth your while. Both
seem to be up-to-date and quite impartial (IOW: neither seems to be a
shill for its advertisers!). Both of them also make it pretty easy to
either search or browse their back issues.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/

http://www.reefkeeping.com/index.htm

As far as books go, I highly recommend "Dynamic Aquaria" by Walter
Adey. Even if, like most reefers, you aren't interested in Adey's Algal
Turf Scrubber concept for filtration the book still contains tons of
info about water chemistry, food webs, the nitrogen cycle, energy
utilization, primary production, etc.

What is your concern about depth? If it's light penetration then the
extra depth can be used to your advantage by arranging your stock
according to how much light is needed - Light lovers near the surface
and low light species near the bottom. If your concern has to do with
maintenance, I'd suggest that you go with a deep sand substrate and
LOTS of scavengers/detrivores. You clean the viewing panes and let
nature take care of the rest.

BTW: These are not the recommendations of a veteran reefkeeper! I just
noticed that there hadn't been any responses to your post so I thought
this might get the ball rolling.


Inexpertly yours,

Alex