fro many years i have maintained a water butt ( a term used by English gardenphiles to describe a rain barrel or tank) in my gardens so that i can provide live crustaceans to my well loved fish in the warmer parts of the year... basicaly a water butt is a large sturdy trash barrel that will hold about 30 gals of water or so ..i like to use wiskey barrels.. for two reasons #1 i get them free and in my opion it looks better in ther garden than a trash barrel none the less either will do just fine. During the winter months the butt is not much more that maby an eye sore.. at the end of February i remove all the water from the last year and give it a good cleaning.. gettin out all that sluge and what not from decomposing leaves and what not .. Ok lets get started we have a clean barrel now that i fill with tap water that i put a does of Amquil in to remove any clorine.. then i seed the barrel with green water from a small pond i haveand i add a few banna peels as well i let this sit for a few days every week add a tablespoon of Weat Flour for one month. this will aid in starting the infusoria microorganisms going... i also use a few hardy water plants such as Cabomba carolina , Egeria densa and a load of java moss some plants are brought to the botton by using lead weaight and other i alow to float when april comes about i tank a trip to my local pond and net out some Daphina and bring it back home in a bag just as u would a fish from the store oter thing come in with the Daphnia such as Cyclops and waht not over the summer many others will come in to play suchas drone fly Larva blood worms Mosquito Larvae and glass worms all of the above is a great source of fish food and it's free and you know you want only the best in foods for your samller and baby monster to be... yet this food is also great for any fish............... I have shorten this DIY project wich was writen by Iggy Tavares PH D .... there will be a much more informative page in the Feb 07 of Fama mag.... i did cover all the main points to get anyone intrested a good start 
