Bioload/evaluate

justlooking

justlooking

Member
I have CC substrate, some dead coral. 46 gallon bow tank.
How is this for a bioload.
Hermit crabs
emerald crabs
3 green chromis
1 sandhopper blenny
1 jawfish
2 cleaner gobies(neon blue and I think a red-headed but store said it was a striped goby)
1 yashi shrimp goby
1 firefish
Thats 9 fish. I was thinking of getting one more jawfish. I might need to add some more hiding places. What does everyone think of this bioload? All fairly small fish obviously
 
jim672

jim672

Member
justlooking,
The rule of thumb for inches of fish in a tank is one inch (full-grown adult size) per 5 gallons of water. For your tank, around 9 fish-inches would be top end. You're already way over that, probably at least double. Since you don't have any live rock or live sand to assist your filtration, I'd suggest that your max would be even lower than 9 inches.
Unless you're planning on upgrading your tank soon, I wouldn't add any more fish to that tank.
Jim
 
justlooking

justlooking

Member
ONE inch per 5 gallons? That makes no sense. That would mean in a 30 gallon tank if you had 2 small 3 inch blennies, you'd be done?
Depends on size of fish, bio-load of each fish. Any other opinions
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Actually, yes, that is the general rule of thumb for saltwater...1 inch per 5 gallons. What sort of filtration do you have? There are various other factors that mean it is only a general rule, but it is a good place to start.
For example, if keeping predators, it wouldn't be anywhere near 1 inch per 5 gallons, more like 1 inch per 10g at least.
Smaller fish, maybe less. Depends on a lot of things...LR, territoriality, feeding schedule, water chemistry.
So what are your water parameters, esp ammonia, nitrite, nitrate? These may indeed be more telling....
 
tangtang

tangtang

Member
Hey Justlooking!
Large water changes will help lower your nitrates.
FYI: I have a 180 FO with 5 small fish. As I have it figured, when these fish each reach apx. 7", my plan is to add another tank.
Linda
 
col

col

Active Member
I don't see how it can be a general rule of thumb.
Some tanks are filled to the brim with LR others have little.
A 46G tank full of LR may halve the amount of water at least.
"General" rule of thumb???
 
justlooking

justlooking

Member
Other levels are zero. And yes I agree a tank with lots of LR should hold less fish, I have some dead coral in there but not a whole lot
 
jim672

jim672

Member
col and justlooking,
You're both going the wrong direction with this. Everything else being equal, a tank with "lots of" live rock would be able to support more inches of fish than one with little or no live rock. It doesn't have anything to do with the amount of water that's displaced by the rock......it's all about the extra bio-filtration provided by the anerobic bacteria that will be able to grow on live rock.......and that bacteria will break down the ammonia created the fish in the tank. (Obviously, if you had so much live rock that there was little or no room for fish to swim, that would help determine the species of fish you could keep in that tank.)
A Rule of Thumb is an approximation. You asked a general question, you'll get a general answer. If you're looking for a very specific answer then provide very specific information about your tank: dimensions, how long set-up, exact water parameters, filtration, how much lr and ls, etc, etc.
Jim
 
I

ivanfj

Guest
Hey justlooking
Why don't you take the chromis out and add that ONE fish.
Or maybe you should listen to other people's opinion but I guess you are gonna get the same answer over and over again. Also I found it quite funny when col says the amount of water would be halved if LR were added. Then maybe everybody should start taking their LR out of their tank. The LR are definately disturbing the fish and taking up space.
 
cosmo

cosmo

Member
I question that "rule of thumb" also. A 10" fish is going to be about 1000 times bigger than a 1" fish. 10x longer 10 wider x 10 higher = 1000. Line up 10 1" tangs next to 1 10" tang, there's no way the two will eat or produce as much waste.
IMO you could put more small fish in the tank than the "rule of thumb" allows.
cosmo
 
I

ivanfj

Guest
wo wo wo wo wo~~~ wait a second.
10X longer yes
10X wider??? You mean fatter??? I doubt it.
10X higher??? I really don't know about this one.
 
jim672

jim672

Member
cosmo,
Agree in theory. That's why they call it a "rule of thumb". It's an approximation (Oops, I said it again). That's also why we're supposed to use adult fish inches when "approximating "......a one inch juvenile fish may grow to be a 10 inch adult fish.
Do you know any good LFS in Phila (besides the Hidden Reef)?
Jim
 
cosmo

cosmo

Member
Jim,
I was using that example to show the waste production of different size fish. There is a Pets Plus 2 minutes from the hidden reef, worth the stop if your going to the hidden reef.
cosmo
 
jim672

jim672

Member
cosmo,
From everything I've heard, read and seena "good P. P." seems to be a contradiction in terms?? But anyway.....is it right on the Boulevard? Same side of the street?
Thanks for the lead.
Jim
 
cosmo

cosmo

Member
this one is decent, couple guys know what they are doing and everything i've gotten from them was good. Its about 3 miles north on the other side of the Blvd, in shopping center at Red Lion Rd
cosmo
 
jim672

jim672

Member
Thanks cosmo. I was planning a trip to the Hidden Reef this weekend......now I have two places to stop!
Jim
 
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