DavidM wrote:
...
Many people have low maintenance gardens ponds with a few fish that are
never fed. There is no pumped filtration or outside intervention. The
population of fish (and plants) is self regulating depending on the
available resources. Fish eat plant matter or invertebrates so if the
pond is in balance, the nutrient level will be just right.

I was thinking about setting up a planted aquarium along those lines,
but the experts in the aquarium groups I went to for advice seemed
pretty adamant about it not being feasible in an aquarium of any
reasonable size. It occurred to me it might be more feasible to do
this as a pond, so I searched this newsgroup and found your message.
Can you point me to any information or advice about setting up such a
pond? The phrase "low maintenance" sounds trivial, but I'm sure it
requires careful design and an initial period of "high maintenance"
while working to reach the necessary state of balance.

Thanks!