Top Up System? Maintenace Free System?

[joachimsim]

In addition to my....topic on Plants only tank...I always have this nice idea of having a tank with minimal maintenance...no feeding and change of water if possible?


Is it possible to create some kind of hemisphere..if thats the right word...trapped in a tank...by adding Co2 for the plants which in produce o2..which are then used for fishes and plants to respire at night and cycle repeats again? Maybe doing away with fishes will do away with need to change and top up water if system is evaporation proof?? I might be dreaming but I have seen such small tanks sold in Australia...NO need to feed and change or top up water...I think there were just shrimps in there from memory..so they just feed on microorganisms and the nitrogen cycle repeats in the small container?

I am aware that there are automated top up and water change systems from US>..anybody like to tell me more abt this?

Jo

[Plantbrain]

Those so called eco balls/spheres with some algae, shrimp etc. They last for awhile then croak. Some get a a few months out of them.

Not really a planted tank.

The best set up is a simple fish planted tank with a non CO2 approach with a deep gravel bed, basic easy to grow plants and a good number of algae etaers.

The plant to critter ratio has to be extremely high to support a balanced system like in the spheres so you get lots of tasty plant(algae) and only one or two shrimps which die out and then the system crashes.

The trick is to get a herbivore that does not eat itself out of house and home and then starve in a very small container.

Even in a non CO2 plant tank you have to add something if you want decent plants(top off the water, add fish food etc) on a routine basis.

Regards,
Tom Barr