sounds interesting. i think i have heard of something along those lines before...so should be interesting. a thought has just come to me...
If i was to set up a freshwater version of the Berlin system, i would probably run it along the lines of Takashi Amano. His tanks are considered master pieces, and he goes about setting them up the natural way. he takes his design ideas from watching natural water ways, he gets alot of his materials for setting up his tank from nature, and doesnt use mechanical filtration, but instead uses a house plant filter, or a vegetable filter. these filters are very effective at pollution control, and cheap to run. the plants used are spathiphyllum, philodendron, cyperus and monstera deliciosa. these plants are not planted in any medium, and water from the display tank is trickled through on a regular basis. these filters are very effective in the control of nitrogen/nitrate problems - but i do not know the exact schmatics as yet. his tanks fundamentals are:
-strong lighting
-CO2 fertilisation
-substrate fertilisation
-effective biological filtration (the vegetable filter)
-planting 100% ground cover
-free swimming space
-complementary fish and plants
-and the Yamatonuma and Amano shrimps.
