I recently started a salt-water (aka marine) aquarium up. It's kind of daunting at first, as you really need to read a lot about how everything works before you go diving in. But it's really one of those things where, once you've done it once, you'll know what you're doing from there on out.

I have a small aquarium that currently contains the following: live sand, live rock and the various "critters" that came in it (tube worms, isopods, etc.), two clown fish (named Nemo and Dory), two crabs, and several snails.

I plan on adding: a sea urchin or other invertebrates, an anemone or two, bubble coral, brain coral, giant blue clam, feather dusters, sun coral, mushroom corals, clavularia, and others. If I don't add the anemone, then I'll probably add some blue tang fish.

So far I have really enjoyed the marine aquarium. It's some work, you have to clean the tank and feed the fish every day, feed the rock/coral every 3 days or so, perform water tests and corrective action anywhere from every 3 days to once a week, and once a month do a 20% water change.

To me that isn't a drawback, it is actually kind of fun. It's amazing looking into the tank each morning and seeing what's hatched over night and watching all the goings-ons. Marine aquariums are definitally a lot more active than freshwater tanks.

The big drawback is cost. I can't believe how much I have sunk into this little project already. The fish are expensive, the coral are expensive, the live rock is even more expensive, and all the chemicals, test kits, and various equipment really add up fast.

I'm happy I did it though. If any of you are interested in setting a tank up, most of the marine aquarium stores around town are owned by very friendly people who are willing to answer your questions. I'd start there and find a few good books on the subject.

I'm jealous. I've always wanted to have a salt-water aquarium, but it seemed like a big hassle and a little daunting (as you mentioned). If I ever decided to start one, I now know who I need to talk to!

I currently have a 55-gallon fresh water tank with a beautiful stand that I bough from my old boss for $100. He sent me all of his old stuff with it as well, including limestone that we could use in switching it over to salt water. A guy I used to work with has a beautiful salt water tank. Actually, he literally has a whole room filled with tanks and fish stuff. Pretty neat. We will probably look into starting a salt water tank this summer. Well actually, not unless our fish we have now die, I dont want to kill them just for a salt water tank.

Sadly, one of my two new clown fish died last night. The other one seems to be doing fine. I think he came in with a bacterial infection.

A friend of mine in college decided to do the salt water tank deal. His tank LEAKED and created a HUGE mess and almost all of his fish died. It was so heartbreaking. The last ones living he gave to good homes but he still gets a lil teary-eyed when watching Animal Planet and seeing all the fish.

Best of luck with it, obviously you already know how much work that has to go into getting it started and maintaining it. Getting it started (ph levels and all that) is---not to sound like the GI joe stuff--- like half the battle! Congrats on the tank... sorry to hear about the clown fish :(

On one cool note, last night a few tentacles flung out of one of my live rocks, and a few minutes later a starfish hopped out and stuck himself on the side of my tank. It was rather unexpected. That's the cool thing about marine tanks, every day something new is going on inside of it.