Hey Moe-sy,
I keep a reef tank, and it's super low-end. Despite that it's gorgeous and there are so many awesome critters living in there that you can see something new every day. :-)
I spend maybe an hour a week doing maintainence. That consists of scrubbing the inside of the glass every other day with a magnet thingie (takes 2 minutes) and cleaning the glass with windex because a lunare wrasse I have splashes water out of the tank every time it eats.
The best thing I ever did that made this so much easier on me is:
1.) Added plants
2.) Bought an RO unit (makes 100% pure water).
My tank has been 15 years in the making and has frozen twice due to power outages while I was away.
Despite that, not everything died.
I do a lot of things that guys say that you should never do, but it's because I've wanted to create a self-sustaining biosphere, or a symbiosis.
Withh fresh water tanks it's very easy to do. With reef tanks it's taken me 15 years to get it right.
Carlos' tank is the extreme polar opposite of mine. His is like a hospital while mine is like a swamp. :-)
His costs a fortune, and while mine isn't by any means cheap, it's definately affordable.
It takes a few years to cycle your tank, or at least it has mine.
If you get a good light, a good filter, and a good skimmer, and an RO unit you're on your way. Then you use a lot of live sand, coral, live rock, critters (crabs and snails), and some little fish and watch it like a hawk and do lots of water changes.
Add some razorwire chaeta (a plant) and it will come with all the "bugs" you need. Little shrimp and worms and stuff. They clean the bottom and process all the waste. In turn that processed waste feeds the plants. The plants clean the water. The baby bugs feed the live rock.
When it's time to add corals, everything is there that they need.
While my tank isn't a striking art statement like Carlos', it's beautiful in it's own right because of all the colors and activity. Much like cigars, it's one's taste that dictates what they want.
What you want will dictate what you have to do and how much work you have to do.
Carlos has to know a LOT to keep the environment he's created. He has to be right on top of it, too.
Mine is a lot less delicate, and it takes care of itself for the most part.
I still have to pay attention to it though. I'd say I do as much work on my tank as I do on my cat. Maybe less.
Nothing is "hard" either.

You should try a little nano tank. They're little tiny desktop environments and you can put a couple little fish in there, some live rock and some corals. They're inexpensive and a real bang for the buck. Easy to care for, too.
That way you could see if you like it before going crazy and spending millions. Plus you could just move your stock to a bigger tank.
I bet you'd love it. :-)
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Here's a start on the pics.
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Never owned a fish tank, but thanks for this thread. Really enjoyed the pictures. I love all animals, and fish are so beautiful and majestic, this is awesome.
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Beautiful Coraline.
First sign of a very healthy environment.
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That is the beauty of a reef system v. a fish only.
The reef is truly very self sustaining other than water changes.
The critters, the live rock, the fish themselves all maintain it for you.
In a fish only system, more labor involved in cleaning the corals.

Knowledge wise, not really hard. I feed them when I remember. I change the water once a month, the month I remember. Once in a while, I may even remember to change the dirty, nasty old pad on the wet dry.:-)

Do you have a refugium? Wet dry? or combination of both?
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My 90 has been really low maint. Its been up for about 6 months now and I haent needed to do a WC yet. 5 of those months the only fish in there was a maroon clown. nitrates are still only at 5ppm I love large water volumes.

I went to the LFS (local fish store) today and placed a hold on a 4" Hippo tang. I would have bought him but i let with $60 in coral instead. I will be picking him up next week sometime.

Pictures of my coral later tonight maybe.
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Nope, Carlos, no refugium.
Actually I do, though. It's a giant wad of Chaeta that's jammed behind the mountain of rock. :-)
I just cut it back when it grows out too far. I have to cut it back or tuck it back in about once a week. I tear about half of it out every few months and throw it in the garbage. I always look in the bucket and I'm amazed at how many shrimp and worms are flopping around. :-)
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That's my starfish Henrietta on the bottom. The fish is Little Yellow. He's Kerri's fish. He's the replacement for Big Yellow who perished in the Great Freeze of 2006. :-)
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I used to have a colony of fans that covered half the floor of my tank. They've been recolonizing the last couple years and are starting to spread out into the light. The piece of dead coral on the left is covered on the back and the fans you see are new, they've started spreading around the front. Pretty soon that whole corner of the tank will be covered.
The fans really spread when hatches come off. The whole tank will be swimming with tiny baby shrimp that eventually all get ate by the fans and coral and other critters growing in the live rock. It's cool. :-)
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This pic shows the great big yellow sponge that grew over the last 2 years. It was literally a yellow speck when it started.
Anybody know what the orange thing is that's growing on the left of the sponge?
I'll try to get a closeup in the next pic...
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Here's a closeup of the yellow thing and orange thing.
I just assume the yellow thing is a sponge because he looks like Sponge Bob.
Anyone know what they really are?

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Both look like species of Tunicates. The lighter one for sure. Nothing to be worried about. Theya re just filter feeders like feather dusters and what not.
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The yellow one kinda looks like it'll turn into one of those tube/slipper sponges. It grows really fast. The orange one is a very slow grower.
I noticed the orange ones when I was diving before. I haven't seen the yellow ones. That's why I figured it was a juvie and maybe it'd get a shape later.
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If it has been growing for two years I dont think there is much more to grow shape wise. Now it will just grow as a matt. Let me get a site for you that is VERY helpful for critter IDs
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It wont let me edit my post bet here is a site that I have used from the very beginning.

http://www.xtalworld.com/Aquarium/hitchfaq.htm

Turns out to be very helpful with most things.
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WOW, just WOW. You all have some impressive fish tanks. Makes me think about firing up the old hobby. I've been seriously considering getting back into aquariums lately as my kids really love em, but at 3years old, I'm scared they are a year too young (think cool hard toy flying through the air into the tank).

Beautiful tanks & fish guys!
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No pictures of the new corals tonight..... ligths went out. But I just ordered soem wicked awesome zoanthids from a friend. Check them out. Devils Armor Palys. This is the mother colony Im only getting 4 polyps. Man I love these!
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Ok mods sorry for the consecutive posts but this is my forte :-)

First my Ring of fire (R) and watermelon eagle eyes (L)
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Yellow colony polyps
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Purple Ricordea
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Hulk Zoanthids
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A orange-er morph of my Ring of Fire zoanthids.
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Dragon Eyes (R) and Green Meanies (L)
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Kiwi Stars
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Some actinic pictures.

Morph of the Ring of Fire
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Nuclear Pallys.
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Thanks Carlos. :-)
I can grow coraline like a wildman. I just got a whole bunch of base rock and it's getting taken over. I'm thrilled about it. (Doesn't take much to get me excited.)
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