If you are not into SCUBA diving yet, you can still have an amazing adventure with marine biology and ecology in your home or office. We can help you experience an amazingly rich ecosystem where you are as a natural, biologically powered mini-reef aquarium.
There are some really good sources of information on the various techniques, and one of the best place to start your education is a blog called "Saltwater Smarts," see the link below. If you are a careful and/or creative person, you may help by inventing or sharing new ways to maintain a stable aquarium. Many of the best aquarists are not as highly educated as you might imagine, the field is too broad to be well covered by a given scientific discipline, though many fields of study are very helpful. When it comes to supporting a diverse and balanced assembly of the most ancient, specialized, and interdependant forms of life on the planet, the amazing fact is that the considerable progress we have made with marine aquaria in recent decades has come not from academia, but ordinary, interested people from many walks. We work at a smaller scale onshore, but in a well connected community, and appreciate the many volunteers and cooperators without whom we could not succeed.
There is a lot of advice out there from the commercial marketers of products to sell, and we are one of those. You will find so many interesting equipment systems and additives out there it will make your head swim. We say come on in, the water is fine, and it's over almost everyone's head, so relax...and start simple. Build an ecosystem from the biological foundation up, as we see in nature. Adapt your methods as you learn, and the work is worthwhile because you may end up helping providing new habitat for some endangered life that is both beautiful and dynamic.
We can't predict with precision what you will find as you explore, but we think you will enjoy the journey. Life appears to be both chaotic and orderly, and to immerse yourself in it means you are at home in the world we were given to care for.
We hope to help you learn how we can give more to the natural world than we extract as we enjoy it. Our future on this water planet may well depend on doing just that.