[mseepman]

I actually got to sit and chat with Brett at MACNA as well as the supplier they buy all their fish from and they go through a lot to pre-prepare the livestock and the water for the show. They said they got a lot of haters from the aquarium side of things, so much so that they were asking the producers to show more of what the background preparation was during the episode so that people could see what was involved.
They not only build tanks but do tank maintenance so I doubt that letting everything die afterwards would be in their best interests.