Anyone ever kept a marine tank?

[ButWhyIsTheGinGone]

Firstly, I'm not planning no doing this myself at the mo - can barely keep on top of the tanks I already have! I just think they look so amazing, and the live corals are so beautiful. Has anyone here ever kept one at all? What kind of effort does it take to keep it thriving, compared to, say, your every day tropical tank?
My friend said her ex used to have a stunning 1000l marine tank but then "got bored" of it and neglected it, leaving everything in it to die and go rancid. :-(

No, because they are massively expensive to run and bloody complicated If you know the basics of water quality then you might be OK but they are more complicated to run and a lot more work, not to mention the leccy bill from the high-powered lighting. They do look wonderful and I'm sure I'll have one one day if I manage to sell one of the DDs on ebay.

This goes into detail about equipment and cost, and then you'll need to read up on water chemistry as well. Marine fish are a lot more picky about water quality (and a lot more expensive to replace so you don't want to bugger it up!).

I know that sounds very pessimistic but it would cost a lot to set up and I'd hate for anyone to splash out on all that unless they were 100% dedicated. If it's your dream then defo go for it but if not then give it a think first and maybe window-shop for some equipment so you can get an idea of what's out there.

We have one. Pre dd we lavished time and energy on it but post dd it has been slightly more neglected! It is very expensive and time consuming and when we moved house it was a nightmare.

We will probably get rid of it soon as we may be moving again soon (giving fish/corals to shops of course!). We might try and save the glass as we will do it again sometimes. The cabinet has not coped well though - three years later it is in bad condition. We spent £600 on it as well so not exactly cheap.

You have to be pretty sure before you do it and there is a lot of geeky chemical analysis at the beginning too.