I'm not sure if you are close to any public aquariums. If you are I'd suggest seeing about taking a guided tour. MOA sea life has a tour of behind the scenes that was pretty neat. Not the most educated guides, but they had staff working during the tour and you can ask questions. Along with getting to see the set ups first hand. That's personally what I enjoyed the most. I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know(I grew up watching any and all documentaries I possibly could. Still do.)
But getting to see how things are run was pretty awesome. The holding tanks, med tanks, kitchen for food prep, animals bred for food, the testing room, etc.
best of luck!
I live in India and the aquarium facilities aren't as big here its all mostly setup with common fish and they're all set up as individual systems. Wouldn't be of much help to me. Thesis work would start in roughly after 6-8 months, but i'm too excited 
