I've been experimenting with something called Natural Planted Tank aquarium keeping. I've keep aquariums since I was young and have always been interested in keeping plants. NPT is a new approach for me utilizing soil under the gravel and various other low tech approaches.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/index.php is a great place to go for info.

Day one. Cloudy water.

After one week the water is clearere and everything is settling down.

After two weeks the water is pretty clear and the plants are starting to show new growth.

A put in a few helpers. I scooped some of these (which I'm pretty sure are) Great Pond Snails (Lymnaea stagnalis) out of the river out back of my place. They tirelessly scour all of the surfaces. And they breed prolifically! Good new for me is that when I have too many I'll just throw them back into the river.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymnaea_stagnalis

I also bought some of these freshwater shrimp to help clean. This is my first time keeping shrimp. neocaridina heteropa var. yellow