Interesting Question?

[henryfg]

Hi

I was wondering something the other day. Would it be possible to set up a tank, or series of tanks overflowing into each other and then back around, so that a complete (or as near to complete as possible) ecosystem is established?

So obviously an ecosystem needs inputs, and way of disposing of outputs. So going in needs to be light energy to start off a food chain, this, through photosynthesis, grows plants. The plants are eaten by microbes, eaten by successively bigger animals. Then the waste products, as we all know, are ammonia and solid waste from the fish. The filter deals with ammonia, ending eventually in nitrates, and then these are taken up again by plants.

So a small aquarium with only 2 or 3 fish (I imagine that even such a small population would need an enormous set up to support it totally) overflows into a larger and heavily planted tank, to soak up nitrates, Water from this, full of algae and microbes, flows back into the small fish populated tank where small crustaceans etc. can feed on the products, which the fish then eat. I guess the ony inputs would need to be fertaliser once in a while, and sunlight. Maybe a way to move the fish waste into the garden tank to form a sort of soil? Or even have the fish IN the garden tank itself (it would be next to impossible to view the fish though I expect)?

This is obviously oversimplified, but would something like this be possible? Has anyone heard of anything like this being acheived outside of nature?

 

[loraxchick]

if set up properly you dont need the "cleaning" tank. google Diana Walstad and read about her method. i had a tank like this for over a year and never did a waterchange. simply topped it up. very interesting stuff! (but you will still have to feed you fish, depending on stocking/bioload)
cheers

 

[OldMan47]

I maintain a few of my tanks using Diana's basic approach and it works great. I have heavily planted tanks with heavy fish populations that only get a water change of about 50% once every 6 months or so. There is never a nitrate reading on the tanks because the plants are pulling out all of the nitrogen in the tank to support their growth. The only thing that gets added from outside to support the plants is fish food, that the fish pass on to the plants, and light. The only filter that I run on a 40 gallon breeder tank with over 50 goodeids in it is a simple sponge filter that I have only cleaned about as often as I do a water change. The goodeids in that tank average about 2 1/2 inches long so it is not what you might call a light stock level by any means. The plants are my filter really but they don't grow fast enough to become a food source for the fish and the fish are not really plant eaters.

 

[didz04]

Hmm I might look into that and your oversimplified process henryfg was creative and really made a picture in my head of what it would look like. I can tell you really thought about this.