Thank you for purchasing this guide and welcome to this tremendously interesting and educational hobby.The aquarium hobby in general is a huge hobby and there are lots of people all over the world who either keep an aquarium or would like to keep one. There are many types of aquarium - coldwater, freshwater, brackish, saltwater etc. The saltwater aquarium hobby is becoming more and more popular. With television coverage of natural reefs, public aquariums etc people have a greater access to the beauty of the reefs.

Ultimately with the evolution of technology and the greater knowledge of the subject people are finding that they are able to keep a saltwater aquarium. A lot of people however are put off starting their own saltwater aquarium because they either believe or have been told that keeping a marine aquarium is hard, others are put off because they again either believe or have been told that it is very expensive.

This guide will hopefully detail exactly that it is not difficult to keep a marine aquarium and how you can prevent costly mistakes and ultimately give you enough information as to whether keeping and maintaining a marine reef system is for you or not.

It is understood that some people may read this guide and decide not to go ahead with starting a saltwater aquarium. I hope not as this is truly a fantastic hobby to be a part of.

Coral reefs are a true wonder to behold. I can remember as a child snorkelling over them with my father and finding the fish and movement fascinating. All through my childhood I was also surrounded by aquariums and I obviously did not know back then that this fascination would stay with me into adulthood.

Having your very own mini coral reef in your home is both challenging and rewarding and unfortunately at times frustrating. I am, however, 100% positive that you will get years of satisfaction from your new aquarium.

There are many people who would love to set up a salt water aquarium, some of which have already kept other types of aquatic life. I hear many times from people that they would like to set up a marine system but feel that it is too hard to do so. As long as all the facts are known then setting up a salt water aquarium is actually quite easily accomplished.

This is one of the reasons this guide was created.

The natural reefs in the seas and oceans contain a huge array of fascinating species. It was not that long ago that it was considered impossible to keep marine fish never mind corals in a closed home aquarium. The hobby has certainly advanced a very long way since then. So called "live" rock for example was never used in the early days. Nowadays this is classed as being a normal requirement. The learning never does end though, aquarists all over the world are continuously learning, testing and practicing possible new techniques. Who knows, perhaps in the future there will be other techniques available - I am sure that there will be.

The salt water hobby is becoming ever more popular. Sometimes I believe that some of this popularity is because of the wrong reasons (I will not delve into this in this guide). In the majority of cases it is rightfully so because of the general fascination of the colourful aquatic life which can be kept. The good thing nowadays is that there is an abundance of technology which is either an improvement upon old technology or is brand new technology. The problem with all this technology, however, is that sometimes it can leave the marine aquarist bewildered as to what to use, where to use it, what it is etc.  Worse, some people are put off starting a marine reef aquarium completely which to me is a complete shame. Even those people that understand the various types of technology are sometimes confronted with another area of confusion, conflicting advice.

This advice can come from many areas - books, friends, colleagues, the internet and many more places. Advice could be given to a newcomer to the hobby which appears impossible to achieve. Sometimes information is given which is hard to understand, again this information can come from multiple areas.

For this reason my advice is simple. Listen to all the advice given, learn as much as you can and then make up your own mind. Do not be pressured or influenced into implementing something which you are not sure about.

This guide was created so that, hopefully, the pitfalls which can be encountered will be avoided. It will also answer some questions you may already have and provide some insight into areas you may have not yet been exposed to.

This guide was designed to give general full coverage on starting a salt water reef aquarium. There will be some areas which cannot be covered such as coral and fish selection etc.