Self-Sustaining Ecosystems

October 9—If we say an ecosystem is self-sustaining, what do we mean?  Does this term describe your aquarium?  Explain your answer.  If it is not self-sustaining, what does it need to become independent?


This photo is of a self-sustaining ecosystem that has been kept alive for 40 years without any human intervention at all.


If an ecosystem is self-sustaining, it just means that it can take care of itself - no human intervention is needed to keep it going. An example could be a pond, river, lake, that is not regularly maintained by humans for feeding or cleaning. 

My aquarium cannot be described as self-sustaining because it is not naturally set up, the fish that I have need to be fed regularly and if the tank were to be left alone for a long time without any bacterial supplements or regular water changes and refills, the water level would become too low and the ammonia/nitrate levels would become too high to sustain any life. 

For my aquarium to become self-sustaining, it would need an automatic feeder for the fish, or something that could be a producer of food for the fish and frogs to live off of, there would also need to be an automatic water refill so that the water levels did not drain out or evaporate.