Calculating Bio-Load

[Flatspin]

Maybe I slept thropugh that day at fish school, but many times people
sound like there is a specific formula for calculating bio-load in an
aquarium.

Now I'm not just throwing this out there willie nillie, I Googled
"Calculation Bio-Load" several different ways and came up lots of nice
articles on how it relates to chemestry levels, but nothing to tell me
specifically how it is calculated.

For anyone who was awake that day, please fill me in, I beseech you!

Humbly,
Shawn

[NetMax]

"Flatspin" > wrote in message
news:AX8Zc.65231$4o.44637@fed1read01...
> Maybe I slept thropugh that day at fish school, but many times people
> sound like there is a specific formula for calculating bio-load in an
> aquarium.
>
> Now I'm not just throwing this out there willie nillie, I Googled
> "Calculation Bio-Load" several different ways and came up lots of nice
> articles on how it relates to chemestry levels, but nothing to tell me
> specifically how it is calculated.
>
> For anyone who was awake that day, please fill me in, I beseech you!
>
> Humbly,
> Shawn

What you are calculating the bio-load for, is what determines what
calculation method is most relevant. For light discussion, use the
length of the fish, not including the tail, so if you have three 2" fish,
your bio-load is 6 fish-inches. In the coarsest of calculations, you can
accommodate this bio-load in 6 gallons of water (and more exceptions than
rules exist).

If you wanted something more scientific (and there are many articles on
this), try here:
http://www.2cah.com/netmax/basics/stocking/stocking.shtml . You can now
factor in metabolism, diet and other factors as they are relevant to you.

In a modelling exercise, your tank's filtration system is balanced to
your bio-load when no detectable NH3/4 or NO2 is present (unplanted
tanks). In planted tanks, you could state equilibrium occurs when there
is no NO3 detectable for a known bio-load.

It might be pointed out that bio-load is primarily driven by the food you
drop in (bio-load crudely equals the rate of waste being generated), so
you could successfully argue that a tank's bio-load is variable,
depending on the type and amount of food dropped in ;~). Ten guppies fed
4 times a day would indeed by twice the bio-load compared to 2 feedings a
day (same food same portions).
--
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