best books
 

in your opinion, what are the best books available on starting and maintaining a freshwater or a salt water tank?

I'll admit it right now: I'm of the internet generation and I haven't yet started a hard-copy library of fishkeeping reference books. However, some of our more experienced hobbyists have big collections. Here's a link to the Recommended Reading section of the forum:

http://www.fishforum.com/viewforum.php?f=124

Hope that helps!

theres also a good chunk of information right here in this thread: http://www.fishforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=348 with links to articles on starting/maintaining your aquarium, fish species/compatibility, diseases/emergencies, plants, breeding, etc.

good luck!