Chris Aslett
An innate fish enthusiast, marine seasoned at twelve, and creator of The Reef Ranch™. Over a decade of professional experience in accredited analytical chemistry and microbiology laboratories. Over forty-five years of experience in domestic/commercial marine system design, management, and livestock husbandry. Bachelor of Science Honours in Biotechnology, Master of Research in Applied Fish Biology, and the founder of the concept bacteriophage therapy of coral disease.
Our Site
Welcome to Reef Ranch Publishing Ltd the home of the reef aquarium expert* and The Complete Reef Aquarist, which is a site providing expert reef tank and marine fish guides free of charge to those of you wishing to care for coral reefs or marine fish.
The Aquarium Advice page features a reef tank blog which explores the latest research and ideas for keeping coral reefs and saltwater fish. Reef Digress celebrates the entropy of the scientific mind during the creative process. Coral Nubbins are coffee break-sized snippets discussing aspects of wild reef ecology as they relate to captive coral reefs and marine fish tanks, while Reef Focus includes coral reef aquarium and marine fish guides which arm the reader with vital skills necessary to care for coral reefs or marine fish.
The site continues to amass accurate, substantiated, and fully referenced material for reef hobbyists, while our advanced series of editorials review collections of related studies for coral reef and marine academics.
Similarly, vital insight for coral aquarists and marine fish keepers feature in our Reef Ranch Publishing Ltd videos.
Our site aims to help tropical ornamental saltwater hobbyists amplify their skillset and knowledge so they have a more relaxing and satisfying experience of coral and marine fish husbandry.
Alternatively purchase the coral reef and marine fish guide to success: The Complete Reef Aquarist for those of you about to sell and dismantle your reef due to recurrent failure.
Q & A
Rachel Scott, “why should people buy your reef aquarium and tropical marine fish guide?”
Chris Aslett, author and coral reef expert, “I am a practical person with “bags” of common sense who has strived to develop academically. The early chapters in The Complete Reef Aquarist explain simply and with pictures exactly what people need to do to set up and successfully operate a reef aquarium or marine fish tank or profitably design, build, and run a commercial tropical saltwater export or retail venture. There is some science, but it is there to explain the reasons for doing what is suggested, yet equally, this reef aquarium or tropical saltwater fish guide, can advance people if they wish to university postgraduate level reef experts. The book begins with the fundamentals which is assumed knowledge in other literature, which illuminates what happens to molecules and beyond.”
Rachel Scott, “what do reef aquarium enthusiasts want?”
Chris Aslett, reef aquarium authority and author, “most newcomers want a reef tank full of thriving corals and fish for the least effort and cost. Reef aquaria and marine fish tanks do not take hours to maintain when they are set up correctly where marine hobbyists are successful and their animals do not die. I have had tropical saltwater aquaria since the 1970s when money was not easy to come by. By including many reef “life hacks” and DIY solutions my reef Conservation Manual saves people time and money on equipment such as reef aquarium lighting, saltwater aquarium chillers, marine denitrifying filters, or it describes the formulation of bottled marine supplements and reef remedies and their use, and recharging reef tank consumables like nuisance algae-clearing granular ferric oxide (GFO). It covers all aspects of tropical marine fish and reef husbandry such as coral and fish compatibility, dealing with coral pests, controlling unsightly algae, diagnosing and curing coral and marine fish diseases, and getting potentially hazardous marine aquascaping right. My reef aquarium guide will pay for itself within the first year.”
Rachel Scott, “so saltwater aquascaping can cause harm if you get it wrong?”
Chris Aslett, “yes, incorrect aquascaping or system design can cause the overnight loss of all livestock in mature reef and marine fish systems, although it takes a couple of months to become deadly in a recent set up, which mystifies some of the cleverest marine aquarists. Saltwater and its organisms are subtly different from those of freshwater. Keeping marine fish or reefs is not difficult once people understand these dissimilarities and the reasons why. However very few people that sell saltwater reef and marine fish-only systems or give advice to reef or saltwater fish hobbyists, have the practical and scientific background and can express that to newcomers in a way they understand.”
Chris, “If you have been struggling do not give up. Become successful after all is disclosed in my practical and straightforward tropical marine fish and reef aquarium guide, The Complete Reef Aquarist.”
The Book
The most comprehensive more than you-will-ever-need-to-know guide for maintaining captive reef fish, corals, and invertebrates from a qualified scientific author with over forty-five years of domestic and commercial practical experience. A single resource promoting the reader from zero understanding to advanced aquarist with over six hundred sizeable pages and twelve hundred and fifty compelling images. Whether managing home reef or fish-only systems, commercial export/retail systems, large public displays, or performing objective science, this volume features all aspects of marine husbandry including system design/maintenance, trace element and DIY supplement formulations, reef/fish lighting and DIY LED pendants, reef pest/parasite control, nutrient and algae management, fish/coral nutrition and compatibility, aquascaping and décor, reef conservation, captive/wild coral culture, coral/fish disease microscopy-based diagnostics and mitigation using host defences and safe DIY chemotherapeutics.
Until we fully appreciate what is happening at the atomic level and beyond, we cannot truly comprehend how husbandry practices impact system dynamics and the animals we wish to nurture. Explores the hitherto “assumed” fundamentals of inorganic/organic chemistry, microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and virology. Combines cutting-edge scientific and practical knowhow explained in simple terms.
For free of charge tropical exporter copies, please contact us using the link below.