The marine and reef aquarium hobby brings some of the fascinating and beautiful fish and other creatures that you would see in a public aquarium or while snorkeling in the tropics, into your own home. Keeping a saltwater fish tank, however, is what many would call a very ambitus, pricey, time-consuming and difficult endeavor. It’s certainly one of the most scientific hobbies out there. It’s probably the only hobby where you can have your own lab, to a certain degree.

There are a variety of test kits and measurement devices to use to measure parameters such as pH, nitrate, carbonate hardness, ammonia, and specific gravity. For a more advanced hobbyist, there are refractometers, lab grade liquid test kits, aquarium controllers, media reactors, and sumps. Some hobbyists will have multiple tanks, tinker with supplements, try out new equipment, or even breed fish.

With that said, it's certainly possible to keep a beautiful marine fish tank on a limited budget if you go with more basic equipment and buy fish and other organisms that are common and hardy. Even if the initial price seems high, the long-term costs are pretty low. A bag of aquarium salt mix once or twice a year, a bottle or two water treatment chemicals once or twice a year depending on what you are keeping, and a container of fish food every couple of months or even once a year if you are keeping small fish that eat dry food.

Marine aquarium supplies and organisms is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Every year, companies like Red Sea (known for salt mixes and all-in-one aquariums), Eco-Tech Marine (wavemakers and LED lighting), Proaquatix (aquaculture fish), Tunze (pumps), and many more, come out with innovative new products. There are trade shows like Reef-A-Palooza and MACNA (Marine Aquarium Conference of North America) where vendors, scientists, and experienced professionals exhibit their new products and findings.

Of course, the more intricate something is, the more that you can learn from it. While a reef tank isn't recommended for beginners, a fish-only tank with a few hardy fish such as damselfish, ocellaris clownfish, cardinal fish or gobies is not that much harder to keep than a freshwater community tank. The only real differences are: Adding half cup of salt mix to every gallon of water when setting up the tank or doing a water change, testing for specific gravity, paying closer attention to fish aggression and compatibility, and keeping fewer (but more colorful) fish in a tank than for a freshwater community tank.

A few good places to start learning about keeping saltwater aquariums include Liveaquaria, Big Al's Pet Supply, Petco, and Bulk Reef Supply. So if you have successfully kept freshwater tropical fish, then a marine tank is definitely worth looking into.

Here is a poem that I wrote on the wonders of saltwater aquariums

Painting With Aquaria

Rays of light pass a transparent ceiling,

Shimmering and wiggling like the tail of a fish.

Brush in a base of creamy yellow;

Hermit crabs crawl on the fine-grained sand.

Daub in some dots;

Maroon and lavender-colored algae encrust the surface of the rocks.

Fill in with vivid hues;

Fluorescent green corals wave in the current.

Touch it up with a wheel of colorful creatures;

Copper-banded butterflyfish glide through the water column.

All swimming, living, thriving in a 3D masterpiece,

Welcome to the reef aquarium.