I know there was an episode of Survivor a few years ago and some idiot picked up an urchin or something and someone peed on his hand. It was a woman too, and she squated over his hand. Nasty.
You'll never stop learning. There's still a ton people haven't discovered about marine fish and inverts. I interviewed Robert Fenner recently, who's been doing it for 40 years or so and still is learning daily.
I think about 4 or 5 months but I have only lost one fish due to diseas and a few to powerheads. After I fixed the power heads everything is doing great.