Hi, my name is Tony and have always had a fascination for the marine environment.
As a recreational Scuba Diver I have dived the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia and the outer reef 80km's off the coast of Townsville Queensland.
I have dived with Whale Sharks, Dugongs, Manta Rays and Turtles to mention a few.
The memory I will never forget would be the Whale Sharks off the coast of Exmouth and the Dolphins at Monkey Mia. I hope the marine aquarium I have, going now since July 2001 has reflected some of the influences gained as a result of the interaction I have had with the marine environment.

The tank brine capacity with rock and livestock is approximately 350ltr's  so every two weeks on the high tide at the local pier I bucket up 80ltr's of fresh brine. Some times you can see small fish and tiny mysid shrimps, I then pre heat and adjust the brine to 24degC and 1.024 sg.
I use it as soon as possible as the fish and corals would benefit from the organisms within the brine.
I keep the Ca at 380ppm Sg 1.024, Po4 0, Ph 8.2, Kh 8 No3 0, I use only two additives, Seachem Reef Calcium and Reef Plus. I have tried increasing calcium but find some soft corals don't like it so I find 380ppm is optimum, It's all a learning experience and each tank is different.   

I use a bare glass bottom in the tank, two 2000L/hr power heads discreetly placed to surge water independently at 10 second intervals, this is controlled by a multi timer that I constructed at minimal cost, it gives a wave affect.
The pumps had to be modified to lower the noise and increase the life due to the on/off dwell cycle.
Under the tank I constructed a trickle filter with an internal main pump and Ozone supplied Protein Skimmer.
A built in float valve controls the incoming R.O. fresh water and the 200w & 300w heaters are electronically controlled, the 200w is set at 22degC and the 300w is set at 24degC.
The 200w will never come on unless the 300w open circuits but if either of them fail to turn off then the power is shut down to them when the brine reaches 26degC, this devise I also constructed as a fail safe to protect my investment and livestock.
I also have a leak detector, if the acrylic tray is wet an alarm will sound, this has already happened, you know the story I was distracted by the phone when filling the top up tank with R.O. 
Lighting is provided with 1x MH 400w radium and 2x 40w 4ft actinic tubes, this provides for perfect lighting on my 5ft aquarium.
The lighting and surge pumps are on for 7 hours and all up I have tested the current draw, lights and heaters on .   About $1.46 a day, $131 a quarter approx. 

The sub floor of my family room had to be reinforced to support the weight of the aquarium. As you can see I have fitted a 25mm drain through the floor to allow for any spillages that may occur, these if any are contained in the fabricated acrylic tray that fits neatly into the floor of the tank stand area under the tank. The pipe gave me a good idea where to measure for the best supporting structure.
From the before and after picture you can see the difference with the extra support given.

Photo taken with a Canon Prima underwater camera   Location: Exmouth Western Australia

The tank stand with the fitted acrylic tray. I 
constructed the frame with 3mmx50mm powder coated galvanized steel tube, the reason for this is that I wanted full access to the under tank area from all sides. NOTE : there is no center support at the front and the timber panels that I
constructed are all removable {front and sides }. Velcro's on the frame as you can see retain the panels, a very clean neat job, much better than using heavy timbers.

The front panel is a replica of the sides and has a marine embossed theme panel across the top and sides, very  appropriate. All these components are available and are easily assembled.
The stand is 1500mmLx600mmWx900mmH
The height is higher than you would see          commercially made and the result speaks for its self in under tank area and tank viewing height