What's Bioload anyway?- discussion thread

How do you figure out a fish's bioload?

There is no way to really measure bioload...usually larger fish have larger bioloads and smaller fish have smaller bioloads.

But certain small fish have more of an effect than other small fish. Is it carnivores have more of an effect than herbivores?

There is no noticeable difference between most fish. Others are considered more "messy" than others but basically larger fish = more waste = larger bioload

True, as would how often you feed.

The size of the fish and the diet of the fish play an important part in determining the bio load.. Also the number of fish, water changes and tank size are important factors..

I think you could measure bioload.

Set up a tank, add the fish in question and measure how much the nitrate level went up each week.

You could end up with a standard unit, that says 1ppm, per gallon per week is 1 "Bio"

So if your Oscar raised the Nitrate level by 10ppm in a 50gal tank, then it's 500 "bios"

If 10 guppies in the same tank took 5 weeks to raise the level by 10, then they would rate 10 "bios" each.

Size of the fish of course has an effect, but their diet and metabolism will have a big effect too. I have an Oscar and Pleco of similar size, the pleco makes more visible waste, but it's mostly recycled algae and cucumber. The Oscar is pooping out recycled fish etc

But I guess, as the article is pointing out, it's the amount of food going into the tank. "Messy" fish like a healthy young Oscar eat more than an adult Betta of the same size. But generally more and/or bigger fish eat more, so produce more waste.

Ian