How Much Bioload Does 1 Fish Produce?

[tim1]

About how much bioload(ammonia is pretty much what I want to know) a standard 1inch Freshwater Tropical fish produce. I know that pleco's produce a lot more waste, but do tetra's, dwarf cichlids and catfish(corys) fall into the category as well?

I know this is hard to calculate because of the different variables like how much food is given, how active the fish are, what the temperature is, but I just want a rough estimate. Is it 1mg, 10mg per 1 inch fish per day? Less? More?

 

[PrettyLittleLamb]

Hiya

I don;t know if this is allowed (if not then my apologies) but you might want to have a look on here, I haven't read it all but I think it might help a little... http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/foru...ead.php?t=10918

Take care,
Jo

 

[Snooks1!]

Impossible to tell the exact amount.

Large fish normally produce more waste, smaller fish produce less. There's no [useful] reason to know the exact amount other than just for ####s and giggles.

 

[chibi]

Wow, that's really getting specific! Don't worry about the details. Just know bigger fish produce more, and to always siphon your tank and change the water once a week.

 

[tim1]

Alright then. Thanks for the link Lamb.

 

[Bignose]

In general, the amount of fish produces is going to be proportional to its mass. And then, there will be a proportionality constant between mass and volume (known as density). So, it is the fish's length, width, and height that all factor into it.

But, there are a lot of other variables. How much does the fish eat?; what does it eat?; what is the temperature of the water?; what is that fish's metabolism rate? These are just the questions I can think of off the top of my head.

Here is a very coarse calculation you can do:

Fish consume 1-2% of their mass per day, though the amount of food being fed is a primary determinant.

Calculate the amount of protein the food, 40% is typical

16 % of proteins are nitrogen

(fish mass)*0.02*0.40*0.16 = mass of nitrogenous waste excreted per day.

Finally, I'll echo what was said above. The specifics don't really matter too much. If you have any ammonia, there is a problem. That's what the test kit is for.