self-sufficient tank

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shawmutt

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Dec 21, 2002
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Greencastle, PA
I was walking through the mall, looking for my future wife's wedding present (still have no idea what to get and the wedding is on June 21st!!!), and I happened upon a small store selling what they called "biospheres." I have never seen these, but evidently they are quite popular. In case you are one of the few who never go out (like me) and don't know what they are, here's a site:

http://www.bio-sphere.spb.ru/eng/bs_bw.html

Well, ever since I saw the things (and stared for about an hour), I have been thinking of two things:

1. How cool it would be to buy one and put it inside my fishtank. It would be the fishes fish tank. Like wow, man! :loopy:

2. And the question that I propose (finally! :roll: ) to this forum:

:?: Is it possible to make a self-sufficient tank (i.e. the fish eat the food, the fish poop, bacteria eat the poop, food (daphnia and such) eats the bacteria, fish eat the food...and so on ad infinitum)?
 
was walking through the mall, looking for my future wife's wedding present (still have no idea what to get and the wedding is on June 21st!!!),

??? You mean I was supposed to buy my wife something? DANG. I thought a lifetime with me would be plenty of a gift. :)

I would say yes its possible but not with our normal stocking capacities. For example in the biosphere they use shrimp. Shrimp have an incredibly light bioload on the small body of water. Thus by using alage its easy to maintain the proper gas levels in the water. I would be curious what happend if one was placed in an area of high sunlight and if the inside would end up covered in an alage mess.

If you lightly stocked an aquarium and either sealed it OR accepted that you would have to add water every so often to compensate for evaporation I would say you could sustain a tank with out feeding it. But i say the key is the light bioload.
 
Wouldnt the water in the biosphere evaporate over time? That would cause the salinity to be higher.
 
Wouldnt the water in the biosphere evaporate over time?

You must not have read the text at the site, it's a closed system, entirely sealed, nothing gets in or out.
 
I do have a friend that has a somewhat self sufficient tank. The water from his well is great quality and he has his 50 gal. acrylic set up with an overflow to the waster drain in his house and a water line with a slow drip from his well water. He never has to do a water change.
 
Self sufficient tank

Some folks claim to have self sufficient tanks. There is a faction of reef keepers that never do water changes. They keep a fairly light bioload and the combination of liverock and deep sandbed, provide enough filtration to sustain the tank without water changes. That being said, I wouldn't recommend. In natural environments, you have way more water volume to handle the bioload. Picture a guppy in a 10,000 gal tank. True, many FW lakes, streams and rivers have a higher bioload per gallon of water than the ocean, but it is nowhere near what we artificially create in our tanks. Biological filtration occurs naturally and the diversity of life, which often contributes to that biological filtration, can't really be replicated in closed environments. Coral reef tanks probably come the closest. Bacteria grows in/on the liverock, which naturally provides biological filtration (removal of ammonia and nitrites). Also, bacteria in deep sandbeds provide biological filtration (removal of nitrates). Life in/on the sandbed aids in filtration by eating waste and stirring the sand. Furthermore, it provides food for fish and invertebrates. As good as this all works, it is still very difficult to overcome the high bioload without performing frequent water changes. Even though things might go well for a while, the system is being pushed to the limit and a "crash" could easily occur.
 
Jack one word for you decaf jk :p well I have a 150 gal planted live breeder tank all I have to do is replace about one gal of water every couple of days
the fish have babies they eat the babies ( the smart ones survive darwinism)

I want to set up a misting sprinkler head to simulate rain so when I add water it will be like it rained it will be cool

what do you think?
 
I'm not saying a system without water changes can't work. It does in several instances. I just personally do not recommend. Even if you had only 1 neon tetra in your planted 150 gal, the bioload would still far exceed that which would occur in nature. If one is trying to create a natural system, not performing water changes really isn't natural. It's just convenient.

The sprinkler head sounds interesting. Possibly run with lights dimmed or turn some of the lights off, and you should get a neat effect. I imagine your fish will act differently under this condition. I figure many of the fish will come to the top.
 
I love those things!

Here's where I first heard about them:

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/CGIBIN/PRIAMLNK.CGI?CNO=1&MP=PRDUPD^GIN132&STNO=ST01027&WHAT=info

Pity this site doesn't deliver to the U.S, but most of their things are overpriced nonetheless :]
 
Before my brother in laws planted 30 gallon was taken down, he was only siphoning the gravel every 6 months, and just filling up what had evaporated. Also, note the saltwater aquariusts that claim to never perform water changes as Jack mentioned. I think it would be awesome (although seems extremly hard) to be able to perfect this in a larger tank like a 50 gallon, and have it have an unlimited lifespan. I'm thinking no filter or anything, just a sealed tank with a light.
 
I think I'm going to try it in the 5 1/2 gallon...I'm probably going to move the cories into my 29 gallon, I'm going to do some research on it and keep you all posted.
 
Shawmutt-
Where else did you find these? After reading this post last night I kept looking at this one spot on my desk all day today, grumbling at myself. Stupid wallet sucking aquarium fettish...

Todd

-How would they ship it from Russia without shaking the hell out of it? Everybody knows that 'Fragile' and 'This side up' are just invitations for UPS to practice their punting.
 
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