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[APD] RE: can O worms



In a message dated 6/13/2004 12:04:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
aquatic-plants-request at actwin_com writes:

> I think I have a pretty varied diet for the fish right now, but my main 
> inspiration was to try to simulate a something closer to a closed cycle 
> system (I know, that's about as probable as a perpetual motion machine). The 
> 
> inspiration was to have something in the substrate which is an aquatic 
> equivelent to the earthworm. But having said that, I realise to keep a 
> viable colony plus my normal load of fish, I would need a tank with greater 
> area than my 3' allows.
> 
> - Seweryn
> 

If you wish to know more about simulating a closed cycle aquatic system, 
there's a great book out there on the subject that I have called Dynamic Aquaria, 
Building Living Ecosystems, by Walter H. Adey and Karen Loveland.  It's a 
really thick book, 498 pages, a college level textbook, that can really help you 
to gain a better understanding of how to build and maintain an aquarium, (or 
any closed aquatic systems such as reef tanks or mesocosms), based on the 
(almost) self-sustaining living ecosystem model.  They have some examples there of 
what certain individuals and institutions have managed to accomplish based on 
this theory, such as the Chesapeake mesocosm and the Florida Everglades 
Mesocosm that are run and maintained by the Smithsonian museum.  It's really complex 
stuff and the book, while written more for biologists than the average 
aquarist, has some good ideas in it, and might just help you to understand how to 
realize and execute your dream of trying to build and maintain a closed aquatic 
ecosystem with worms being a living viable part of the substrate yet. 

Good Luck,
Leroy

"It's not good fences that make good neighbors, it's good friends that make 
good neighbors."
--just something that I heard the other day
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