Smallmouth Bass

[kzimmerman]

Neither need a substrate, unless your bluegills spawn, but if they do, most likely everything will be dead anyway. Mean little buggers when they get "the urge". Kinda like certain women I know.........
Anyway's, you would probably enjoy the pond more if you had some dark brown gravel. you would be able to see the fish alot better, and the gravel wouldn't get sucked into your filter. Have you thought of plants? A couple of lillies would be cool, just hang a shoplight over the pond.

 

[clemsonguy1125]

Well the ponds inside and I dont have any lights. How should I clean the gravel, I can pull it out like on my smaller tanks? Just a python? Thanks, Ill take some pic of the pond in a second.

 

[kzimmerman]

Just a python, pulling gravel out of tanks to clean it is a bad Idea. I've got 5 yr old tanks that have never been torn down, fish are happier that way, and so are the bb. You can get a cheap shoplight at home depot or lowes. The plants was just an idea, if you don't like it, do something else! Maybe some driftwood? Just give the bluegills some structure, they do need that.

 

[clemsonguy1125]

Thanks, I like the plants idea, and the driftwood idea. Any idea how to clean the gunk at the bottom of the filter. Could I just take a shop vac and suck it out.

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

yah that definitely sounds like a better plan as they will tolerate the warm water much better than a smallie.

 

[clemsonguy1125]

Thanks, right now my biggest issue is cleaning the filter. Its a 20 gallon up flow bio filter full of plastic strapping. With a decent pre filter will cleaning the bio be neccacery. Ive seen a lot of people with flush valves on the bottom but that not possible with a indoor pond.