Ahoy...
Well, part of the allure of the marine tank is really having everything alive, putting a background kinda defeats the purpose. (Even the rock is "live", as it is coral that has died and been taken over by invertebrates, sponges, algaes, etc.) There really aren't plants for saltwater tanks, Aaron
that's what the algae is for.
The tank is actually a lot more alive and there are more things in it now than when that picture was taken. (The anemones, etc.) You actually don't notice the back at all usually. My original plan was for a very simplistic image... one or two rocks in the centre, with white fine-grain sand around. I've achieved it albeit slightly modified. I'll take more pictures and put them up for you guys to enjoy, I took some super macro pics of a couple inhabitants too.
I'd say the full setup plus creatures was about CAD1,000.00 and upkeep isn't too bad. And the creatures have been slowly added over the course of two months (1-3 at a time roughly)
Larger tanks are easier to manage than small ones though, so I kinda took a big dive into the hobby by making only a 20gal. Cost for supplies to make a larger tank was what stopped me.
My eventual goal when I own my own home is to have a custom made tank built into a wall dividing two rooms. I envision three "connected" portions with different styles of reef/creature & probably use my current one as a sump filled with mangroves/live rock for filtration. Total volume of that would be 150-200gal.
[Edit]And yes there's a lot to learn but it's worth it. (You need to watch things like lighting wattage/gal and types of lighting for inverts/corals, salinity levels, PH/Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrates and other things like calcium for certain creatures.) I don't have corals but they're a whole other ballgame.
