Joey - You are right about the ammonia spikes. A good exernal filtration system can level out the spikes. Rotating disk filters also help reduce ammonia. If you keep the waste food and manure siphoned out of the tank, spikes can be minimized. Spikes happen when the bacteria bloom as the feed on the organics of the system.
Your way with gravel may be a method that allows more room for error on a small scale. I have not talked to enough culturists to get a good comparison of both methods. Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) never use gravel in the bottom of the tanks. In those systems the bacteria are allowed to colonize on high efficiency trickling style (air-water exchange) filters with very high surface surface area to volume ratios. Those filters are able to handle much higher ammonia levels than bottom gravel and even undergravel filters. I have seen some of these miniture scale rotating disk RAS filters that are designed to hang on the side of an aquarium.
Based on my educational academic and practical experiences with animal behavior I don't think you will eliminate the instinct of the bass to feed on live foods in one generation, even if you feed train them at the larval stage. Instinct in wild animals is deeply geneticially and behaviorly rooted. To eliminate it, it would take several to many generations. Instinct is why Roy got mauled in LasVagas by the tiger.
