Your best bet in Florida is to take a trip to SE Florida or the Keys. If you want to stick around the Panhandle, then Panama City Beach has some decent wrecks and bridge spans. Many of them have at least one goliath grouper resident and many have 2-4 that are there at all times. Aside from the big goliaths, these dives are all about macro life for me (e.g. tiny little things like blennies, arrow crabs, batfish, mantis shrimp, etc) and watching the jacks dive bomb baitfish. You'll also see angelfish, spadefish, butterfly fish and other tropicals. I've only done 12 dives in the Panhandle over the last few months. Having moved from the Jupiter area to Atlanta recently, I had pretty low expectations of gulf diving but have been pleasantly surprised at how fun the dives are.... the sites aren't the Keys or Jupiter or WPB, but they are way better than any quarry and the water is pretty warm this time of year. I've dove with Panama City Diving and Divers Den. Both are good shops with really nice staff members.
Gulf Shores (Alabama) isn't too bad either, but the vis was a bit worse than PCB. If you want to see some freshwater things, try Morrison Springs: the cavern is full of freshwater eels. They are interesting but kind of creepy too.
