OK... your getting a info from people who haven't really looked into this stuff very thuroughly... unlike myself, I am not trying to be disrespectful, but they have a more limited scope as to what can and cannot be done due to their areas of experience. I have studied this topic for countless hours (probably over 200hrs of reading on this topic... as I had ALOT of free time for a wile...), and even had some success in this area.
SOOO here is my thoughts, 100% self sustaining is possible.... but an EXTREAMLY delecate ballence, so I would recomend something in between. Firstly, in this style of system, you cannot and will not have "crystal clear" water and perfectly white sand, and running a skimmer is probably the WORST thing you can do (IMO) if you are trying to make a mini eco system. I recomend you use and algea scrubber, for one thing it provides a place for detravours to spawn and if your like me you can use it for food for your herbavours (switching screens weekly one in the tank, one in the scrubber, switch when the tank one is eather clean or the when the scubber one is getting to dense).
For starters read this article on DSBs http://www.ronshimek.com/deep_sand_beds.html and I would say you want a DSB of between 6 and 10" of sand you want sugar fine sand btw. You will want some detravor/sand kits to start a base line for the sand factor in the ecosystem. I recomend the products sold by http://www.inlandaquatics.com/prod/products.html and http://www.ipsf.com/index.html. Both of these companies sell good starter kits for detravors/sandbeds, personally I recomend getting both if possible as diversity is the key. Also, NEVER get sand sifting stars (the large kind) or sand snales or sand crabs or any of those... as they eat ALL the things that make your DSB function, only get micro sand stars, worms and the like.
Now that your sandbed is more or less ready to go, you need to move on to the surface of the sand/rocks, so you will want to get detravours for those, my recomendation is to try to get Harpacticoid copepods, Amphipods, Marine mysis shrimp (not the brackish ones), and snales, I don't recomend hermits as they tend to be more predatory given the opportunity. Now... these are much easier to find then a good sand bed kit, so here are a couple of sites that offer good products IMO http://www.aquaculturestore.com/swinverts.html, http://www.algagen.com/prod/ the other two sites also have these as well, again, I recomend getting as many different types/sizes as possible. Also, I recomend macro algeas, specifically Gracilaria and Ulva, try to get multiple types again, there is red, green and brown Gracilaria for example, as these clean not only the water, but provide excellent food stuffs to the herbavours (they may need to be replaced over time as herbavors can usualy eat faster then it grows).
Now that sand and surfaces are full of life, you need to deal with the water column. for that I again recomend Copepods, this time Calinoid type, http://www.algagen.com/prod/ (already mentioned) has the only good line of specific pods (not random catches but pure cultures) of multiple species. I recomend getting all of them. Also, you will need phytoplancton, to feed the pods/clean the water, get as many types as you can find, such as nanochloropsis, Isocrysis etc.
SO now that you have the basics of a sustainable system set up, its time to get it running. I recomend "cycling" the tank with none of these things there, then once its "stable" add all of them, then start feeding the tank, and gradually increase how much you feed the tank daily, the purpose of this is to get the populations of your detravours to sustainable levels before adding fish. Personally I would continue this process for a good month at LEAST, you dont have to keep increasing the ammount of food you add (cheap flakes or pellets are fine btw) just over feed by what ever you would feed the fish you plan to stock, so if you normally feed those fish say 3 pinches of food a day you feed the tank 5 or 6 or something similar.
So no matter what you do, the population of all of these will likely only ever go down, so you will more then likely have to add more of everything every so often.
Hope this helps, but I recomend reading alot into this, as its easier said then done, and I've only scratched the surface with this post.
SOOO here is my thoughts, 100% self sustaining is possible.... but an EXTREAMLY delecate ballence, so I would recomend something in between. Firstly, in this style of system, you cannot and will not have "crystal clear" water and perfectly white sand, and running a skimmer is probably the WORST thing you can do (IMO) if you are trying to make a mini eco system. I recomend you use and algea scrubber, for one thing it provides a place for detravours to spawn and if your like me you can use it for food for your herbavours (switching screens weekly one in the tank, one in the scrubber, switch when the tank one is eather clean or the when the scubber one is getting to dense).
For starters read this article on DSBs http://www.ronshimek.com/deep_sand_beds.html and I would say you want a DSB of between 6 and 10" of sand you want sugar fine sand btw. You will want some detravor/sand kits to start a base line for the sand factor in the ecosystem. I recomend the products sold by http://www.inlandaquatics.com/prod/products.html and http://www.ipsf.com/index.html. Both of these companies sell good starter kits for detravors/sandbeds, personally I recomend getting both if possible as diversity is the key. Also, NEVER get sand sifting stars (the large kind) or sand snales or sand crabs or any of those... as they eat ALL the things that make your DSB function, only get micro sand stars, worms and the like.
Now that your sandbed is more or less ready to go, you need to move on to the surface of the sand/rocks, so you will want to get detravours for those, my recomendation is to try to get Harpacticoid copepods, Amphipods, Marine mysis shrimp (not the brackish ones), and snales, I don't recomend hermits as they tend to be more predatory given the opportunity. Now... these are much easier to find then a good sand bed kit, so here are a couple of sites that offer good products IMO http://www.aquaculturestore.com/swinverts.html, http://www.algagen.com/prod/ the other two sites also have these as well, again, I recomend getting as many different types/sizes as possible. Also, I recomend macro algeas, specifically Gracilaria and Ulva, try to get multiple types again, there is red, green and brown Gracilaria for example, as these clean not only the water, but provide excellent food stuffs to the herbavours (they may need to be replaced over time as herbavors can usualy eat faster then it grows).
Now that sand and surfaces are full of life, you need to deal with the water column. for that I again recomend Copepods, this time Calinoid type, http://www.algagen.com/prod/ (already mentioned) has the only good line of specific pods (not random catches but pure cultures) of multiple species. I recomend getting all of them. Also, you will need phytoplancton, to feed the pods/clean the water, get as many types as you can find, such as nanochloropsis, Isocrysis etc.
SO now that you have the basics of a sustainable system set up, its time to get it running. I recomend "cycling" the tank with none of these things there, then once its "stable" add all of them, then start feeding the tank, and gradually increase how much you feed the tank daily, the purpose of this is to get the populations of your detravours to sustainable levels before adding fish. Personally I would continue this process for a good month at LEAST, you dont have to keep increasing the ammount of food you add (cheap flakes or pellets are fine btw) just over feed by what ever you would feed the fish you plan to stock, so if you normally feed those fish say 3 pinches of food a day you feed the tank 5 or 6 or something similar.
So no matter what you do, the population of all of these will likely only ever go down, so you will more then likely have to add more of everything every so often.
Hope this helps, but I recomend reading alot into this, as its easier said then done, and I've only scratched the surface with this post.
