200 Gallon Filtration

[sawyer1206]

I am setting up my 200 Gallon tank to keep 2 or 3 Largemouth Bass and I am concerned about the filter system. Right now I have under gravel filter plates with 3 300 GPH power heads attached. I also have a homemade in tank filter system with mechanical and bio media.
I have read in other posts that Bass are dirty fish, do I need more filtration?

 

[Daudzegier]

I am builidng a tank with bluegill and pumpkin seed so im in a simmilar situation. three bass with a 200G isnt very stocked. Average adult size is 15", and cuz they are messy fish, the theorey of inches rule says they should get 2 gallons per adult inch. Thats 30 Gallons per fish. so your only half stocked. However i wouldnt go much more than that just cuz they are big fish. You want a filtration system that can turn over 10 times your aquariuam volume per hour wiht messy fish. Then do about 50% water change every week. If you are building your own canister filter you want to have about 2 cu. inches of biomedia per gallon of aquarium. Thats about 22 Gallons of Bio Media if you make a wet/dry or canister filter by hand. (0.114 Gallons of biomedia is aprox. 2 cubic inches) THe pump that you will need needs to push 10 times the water in the aquarium per hour. So you will need a pump that pushes 2,000 Gallons an hour (Or you can get two 1,000 Gallons. That will be easier to find.) If you meet all those peramaters, make sure your filtration is running smoothly quite often, then your tank should run just fine.

 

[jm1212]

any of those inch/2 inch gallon rules are garbage. largemouth bass do get to be over 15 inches long, and they arte very messy though. you could probably have one or two more but thats it. as for filtration, canisters or a wet/dry sump would be best.

 

[legendaryfrog]

you can have 2 or 3 largemouth bass. as for filtration, build yourself a nice wet/dry using about 150 pot scrubbers and a rena xp3/4 solely for mech filtration.

 

[Rallysman]

I agree with the wet/dry statement.

 

[sawyer1206]

I am currently planning an engineering a canister filter that will hopefully cover what the tank will need. I am going shopping and will post pics later.

 

[loaches r cool]

...Average adult size is 15"...

I am not sure what the average size is, but I know from fishing them that 12" is the minumum legal size (in NY) and I have caught one that was 23". In huge aquaria, like bass pro shops and cabelas, when fed regularly, they get like over 20 lbs I do beleive.