An Alternative Aquarium: A Robust Habitat

Typical aquarium literature advocates rigorous routine cleaning and tedious maintenance, which usually leads to an artificially sterile aquarium habitat that's punctuated by stretches of poor water quality (caused by missed cleanings or unnoticed clogged filters). For people like myself, such an aquarium is doomed to failure because it is so dynamically simple that boredom sets in and other demands from life lead to less than the required vigilance and maintenance. Instead, you can build a dynamic and robust habitat that uses natural elements of streams, ponds, and lakes: an alternative aquarium.

Alternative aquariums are ideal for anyone with a basic understanding of and interest in ecology. They use natural processes and elements such as soil, plants, and a food chain of invertebrates to create a more complete, dynamic, and most-of-all, interesting habitat. These aquariums can be customized to a nearly limitless extent, offering you the chance to creatively construct an engaging slice of an aquatic ecosystem.
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Updated November 16, 2014: This, the second edition, is an extensively updated and expanded version of the original 2011 edition, with three new sections: how to incorporate a refugium for invertebrates, variations on the setup process, and how to collect and install driftwood.
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This e-book is equal to a print book approximately 150 pages in length and includes more than 50 color photographs that illustrate the steps and elements.