whats my bioload?

josh10

New Member
I'm just curious as to how heavy or light my bioload is I have a 135gl FOWLR set up with a snowflake eel, Picasso trigger, bursa trigger, and a blue hippo tang.
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
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to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members
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Start a new tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along - we love pics :)
 

frisbee

Well-Known Member
Where are your nitrates at? This is usually an indicator of how hard your tank is working to keep up with the current bioload.
 

Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
It's dependant, as Creekview has said it is largely dependant on how big they are but it is also very dependant on how much and how often you feed and the sorts of filtration you're running. A bit more info and we could get a proper estimate for you :)
Are you fish juvenile, mid-range or at their full adult sizings?
What sort of filters are you running? Skimmer, reactors and any others that are being used?
How often, how much and of what are you feeding the tank??

These are a couple of good questions that'll get us going to start with, another couple of things to look for when judging bio-load is the sort of algae growth or diatoms/cyano growth you have (though this isn't the only way and should not be a determining factor as you can have algae with light loads too). If you could answer those sorts of things then we can get a pretty good gauge of the actual load :)

Are you thinking about adding more fish too? Because it's not just load that will be important in this situation but also personalities, aggression levels, activity and so on of each fish that will need to be carefully considering when you go about adding more fish as this is a borderline predator tank and all of those fish can have aggression issues if not looked after properly or they don't like someone :)
 

josh10

New Member
The tang is the biggest at about 7" then the picasso at 5" the bursa at 4" and the eel is probably about a foot long. I'm not looking to add any fish just curious and wondering if I'm going to need to upgrade my filtration as they get bigger. I do water changes when my nitrates get to about 15-20ppm my ammonia and nitrite are at 0. My filtration consists of macroalgae, live rock and sand and one fluval C4 I know I should probably get a protein skimmer but I haven't seen a need for one yet. I dont really have much algae growth other than the macros.
 

frisbee

Well-Known Member
I don't think you'll need to upgrade or buy any more filters, but cleaning the media inside your canister filter more often would be a good idea. Also, I'm not sure if you have a sand bed or not, but you might want to think about vacuuming this on a regular basis as well. Pretty much anything you can do to reduce the amount of detritus in the tank would be ideal.
For a FOWLR tank, your nitrates are not that high at all, so you must be doing something right. GL.
 

Creekview

Member
If you have enough live rock, your canister is probably playing second fiddle. Is the macro in your DT? You don't mention a sump or 'fuge. I have lots of macro, six or seven different kinds, in my tanks. I am not a fan of canister filters on any system. Unless you are fairly diligent, they become bio bombs, not bio filters.......
 

Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
I'd say your tank is pretty well under control then :) You seem to have maintenance and care-taking managed and keeping the fish healthy. Due to you running a FOWLR tank then your bioload is fine :) Doing WC around that level is a good idea and with the LR in place you've got a decent biological filter in place. If it's working for you with a canister filter then that's fine and as long as everything is happy and healthy I don't see any problems with it because you sound like you've got it running right. That being said swapping it to a skimmer would make your life easier :) Far less maintenance and probably will work more efficiently too. But if you're doing your water changes and looking after everything then I don't see any need to change!! :)


I would love to see some pic's though, as I'm sure everyone else would!! Get yourself another post and show off those beauties! ;)
 

josh10

New Member
I've thought about adding a skimmer but I just don't see a need for it yet but I'll definitely look at some down the line
 
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