In-depth book or on-line data on ecosystem engineering?

UPDATE

Thanks for all the info so far. I'm still on the lookout on tank ecology, ecosystem engineering sources, successful live plankton food setups, and hope that Gresham will get back to me about the book he doesn't want.
Anyway, I found some pretty awesome resources on-line, and will collect them here, in part for my own convenience, and because others may also be interested.

Incredibly cool article on the ecology of natural reefs and how it translates to reef tanks:
Feeding The Reef Aquarium, A New Paradigm - by Ronald L. Shimek - Reefkeeping.com

A supremely enlightening 4 part article, among others including practical information on a much overlooked bio-filtration technology, algae scrubbers:
The Natural Reef Aquarium


Original post:

Hey,

I'd like to do some study on the ecology of reef tanks and refugia, mostly on the lines of "breeding" phyto-, and zooplankton, chemical balance, what eats what, is eaten by what, excretes what, and what can clean that out of the water, etc.

I would like to start a tank with the explicit goal to have filter feeders (tunicates) in it as the main attraction, and before I even start planning, I need to learn a lot about how one can manage high levels of food while maintaining water quality. (I'm quite positive that having lots of live plankton is about the only way to go, as I cannot imagine "dead" food not fouling up the system.)

Any good source or book for me to read?

 

The Plankton Culture Manual by Hoff and Snell is awesome.

 

Thanks a lot, sounds like an awesome book.

 

Extremely dated data unfortunately. Great book if you want to know 1980's protocols. Even with 6 editions, its still dated

Pick up The Modern Reef Aquarium series as well as The Reef Aquarium series. Another great one on the very subject you are seeking (tunicates) is Steve Tyree's books :Amazon.com: The Ascidians (Sea Squirts) : Their Biology, Physiology and Natural Filtration Integration (A Series Exploring the Captive Maintenance and Captive Research of Specific Ocean Organisms), Volume 2 ONLY): Steve Tyree: Books

 

You can have my copy, its utterly useless to me now.

 

So you mean it's not very up to date then? I definitely don't want to spend time learning stuff I need to unlearn, haha... Yea I read that marine aquaristics has undergone a revolutionary change of paradigm in the last few years, so it would make sense to look for a more modern book.

 

By the way...

I'm wondering that about 50% of online sources scream to high heavens about brine shrimp being worse than worthless, junk food for livestock, without nutritional value and with health hazards...

The other 50% talks of them as a prime candidate for culturing as live food.

...so what is up with that? Are they bad or not?

 

It's an awesome book to read. Just because something is old and some of it is outdated, doesn't mean it's useless. Sigmoid you sound rather "smart", I'm sure you could read through it and pick out the great facts and skim over that which may no longer apply. Basics are basics. Take Gresham up on his offer! You won't be sorry, especially where its free!

 

The brine themselves aren't much, it's what you add to them that makes them shine! They are deficient in some nutrients, but if you enrich them, they can be very valuable.

 

I dropped Gresham a message, hope he replies soon.

In the meantime, from what I read up on the web, there seems to exist a very small reefer camp who feed live food only, and describe "impossible" things happening, like "impossible to keep" critters thriving, SPS growing without the need for Ca dosing, and similar...
I wonder if there's someone like that on this forum. I'd love to hear a proven, working live feeding protocol (species of plankton, filtered or not, phyto or only zoo, food amount to livestock amount, cultivation protocol, etc.)