75g small mouth bass aquarium... Q's

[jakemyster44]

I have a 75g aquarium that I plan to set up with a few young small mouth bass, and maybe a catfish. My plan is to use a sand and gravel mix for the bottom, with some natural rocks and a few driftwood peices. I plan to add some anachris plants as well. For filtration I plan on using a AquaClear 70, as well as an Eheim Liberty 2041. I figure that even though the AC will do the job for the 75g, another filter wont hurt... I have all the filter media for the Eheim, but I recieved a AC without any (it was thrown away because it was dirty). I see that there are different media to choose from, as well as different orders in which to place the layers. My question is, taking into account my setup, what type of filter media should I use, and in which order should I layer it? Thanks!

 

[Tony C]

Honestly, I don't think those two are going to be enough filtration regardless of how you set them up, especially in such a small aquarium. A little bit of quick research is showing that most bass keepers recommend 150 gallons at the bare minimum, with much larger tanks being preferable.

 

[jakemyster44]

I will be catching the bass as babies only 2-3" long, and releasing them after a year, much before they reach adult size. I realize that for a adult bass, a much larger aquarium would be preferable. I want to add that before I do any of this I plan to check my local laws, and make sure that everything is legal. Any suggestions for the filters? Thanks for your input,

 

[RampantReptiles]

We have small mouth bass in our pond, they breed in there and its pretty neat to see the babies. Dont believe there are any laws to keeping them but I am in a different state so anyways...

Aquaclear filter... a 70 would definitely not do the job so it is good you are using the additional filter. Filter manufacturers usually rate their filters higher than the capacity that they can actually maintain. I use an AC 70 on my 46 bowfront planted tank and an AC 50 on my 29 gallon.

As far as media... sponge goes on the bottom, carbon in the middle, and biomax on the top for added biological filtration. You can use the ammonia remover instead of carbon or biomax but I am not a fan of any ammonia remover products so would not do it myself. You are much better off just doing a water change then dealing with ammonia removing products.
If you use carbon then that is the only thing you will need to replace. Carbon clarifies the water but gets used up rather quickly. Replacing it biweekly is best but if you do it monthly then there are no serious repercussions. Once the carbon gets used up it just turns into another biological filter until you replace it. The other two parts you just rinse until you believe they are so nasty that you want to burn them or the biomax stuff starts breaking down.

Hope that helps!

 

[RampantReptiles]

o and also if you mix sand and gravel together... all of your sand will end up at the bottom and essentially be a gravel bottom so I would pick one or the other.

 

[gixxer3420]

In New York State you can't keep game fish in an aquarium. Neat idea but its a good idea to check your laws first. If you can in your state they will get large quick. They love eating!!