Affiliate Disclosure

Closed Loop earns affiliate commissions on some of the gear and plants we link to. When you buy through one of those links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Those links appear across the site, including in the gear database and inside guides.

The one rule

Affiliate revenue never changes what we recommend. We recommend what we would put in our own system, and we say plainly when the cheaper option is the right one. A bag of plain organic topsoil beats a branded aquarium substrate for a Walstad tank, and we will tell you that even though the topsoil earns us nothing. There is no paid placement in the database or the build planner, and no product is ranked higher because it pays more.

Why we use affiliate links at all

Independent, honest content costs time to make and money to host. Affiliate links let the teaching stay free: no paywall on the guides, the database, or the planner read. It is the least intrusive way we found to fund the work without selling your attention to an ad network or pretending a sponsor's substrate is the best one.

What we link to

• Substrate, lighting, hardscape, containers, and tools we would actually use.
• Plants and livestock from sellers, where the parameters match what we teach.
• Books and references (like Diana Walstad's work) that shaped the method.

Questions

If you ever think a recommendation reads like it was bought, tell us at jeremy@sustainedecosystem.com. Catching that is the whole point of being independent.