Bio Load - Who worries about it?

[DLock3d]

Someone recently posted about establishing a bio load in a new tank. I've stopped worrying about having a bio load for quite sometime. Maybe it's because I don't overstock my tanks or maybe it's because I do so many water changes but I never have an issue with nitrites. ( knock on wood ). In my mind, I just increase the amount of water changes on a newly stocked tank. After a few weeks I figure the bio load has established and I don't have to do as many water changes. I've done this with both a BB and my recent African tank I set up with sand and holy rock.

Any others who think like me or is everyone still worried about establishing the correct parameters before adding fish?

[Poco]

I don't worry about it either. The amount of wc they go through I never had an issue.

[DiscusDrew]

Agreed, done by feel AFTER YOU KNOW WHAT THE HECK YOUR DOING!! lol, for people new to discus I still will always recommend keeping close eyes on water perameters and making sure you check occassionally and when cycling a new tank. But I think your right Dan, after a while, I think it becomes intuitive to a certain degree, and always doing water changes plays its role too, I mean you can keep discus with zero filtration if your doing water changes often enough is the honest truth.... or any fish for that matter. I certainly am not checking nitrites ammonia or nitrates every day. If there was a problem thats always the place to start though.

[DLock3d]

Drew,

I'm actually only running airstones in my African tank. I do water changes about once a week. Your post was what tweaked my mind to post. Reading about the fish less cycle was almost as painful as doing it. Lol

[DLock3d]

Oh,

I also read on another forum about someone trying to find a good plant balance to eliminate water changes. His reason was that water changes every two to three weeks was more of a "part time job" than a hobby. It made me envious of whatever the hell he did for a living.

[DiscusDrew]

That post was in large part to cover my butt haha, trying to give people new to the hobby the best possible chance at success. I do fish free cycles but I also don't even measure levels while I'm doing it anymore, I just know when it's done.... Haven't been wrong yet, knock on wood.

[joeymac]

You do fish free cycles with unseeded filter media and "just know when it's done" ?


Lol That's a little scary.

[yim11]

You do fish free cycles with unseeded filter media and "just know when it's done" ?


Lol That's a little scary.

LOL it's not so much "when it's done" it's more so (as Dan says) knowing your bio load and water conditions. Changing a lot of water will help to make sure the conditions are optimal when you don't have that established bio filter or are letting it establish.

[DiscusDrew]

You do fish free cycles with unseeded filter media and "just know when it's done" ?


Lol That's a little scary.
No offense but when you deal with enough total water volume, repetitions of the same thing, moving 1000 gallons of water a day..... And it starts to become a pattern. You get to know and understand how your fish work. Their personalities, their necessary conditions, in my mind it's all an equation. And a balanced one. I change so much water it doesn't matter if it's off by a little, I demand tons out of my bio filters sometimes, and I've never lost a fish to something like ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. This is one of two jobs in my life.... Pretty tough to make a living if you don't perfect what you do.

[ashtricks]

I wanted to go the route of establishing bioload cycle before putting any fish.... But guess what.... I gave in to the temptation of discus.... All my plans of a balanced tank with refugium filtration went right down the drain.... Now I am going to put plants in hanging planters. Even if I am able to reduce a couple of water changes a week, it is time saved to be able enjoy the fish :D

[pastry]

Ash, don't be too hard on yourself. I tend to learn the hard way (on purpose many of times... like now). I see and hear what people say not to do and I still do it with discus. Most of the times they're just fine and dandy. Unlike right now when I've done a few knuckle head things lately. For biolode I'm just getting mine to the size I want them and will then go back to being relaxed on the WC's. Right now though, I don't have a choice with young discus in a planted tank... I have to keep up with the WC's to get them to that size I want and my experience has been that the more fresh water then the better for growing. Now as for having them happy, well, I've had plenty of groups happy with weekly WC's with no problems for years. My luck has turned on the current group though so I'm rethinking a lot.

[troweler]

Agreed, done by feel AFTER YOU KNOW WHAT THE HECK YOUR DOING!! lol, for people new to discus I still will always recommend keeping close eyes on water perameters and making sure you check occassionally and when cycling a new tank. But I think your right Dan, after a while, I think it becomes intuitive to a certain degree, and always doing water changes plays its role too, I mean you can keep discus with zero filtration if your doing water changes often enough is the honest truth.... or any fish for that matter. I certainly am not checking nitrites ammonia or nitrates every day. If there was a problem thats always the place to start though.

Yes thats true. Most of the big asian farms run on big water changes every day rather than filtration. i dont worry to much about bio load as long as my fish look healthy and are eating well :guitarist:

[DLock3d]

Good to know I'm not the only one. :)

[joeymac]

I do fish free cycles but I also don't even measure levels while I'm doing it anymore, I just know when it's done.... Haven't been wrong yet, knock on wood.



No offense but when you deal with enough total water volume, repetitions of the same thing, moving 1000 gallons of water a day..... And it starts to become a pattern. You get to know and understand how your fish work. Their personalities, their necessary conditions, in my mind it's all an equation. And a balanced one. I change so much water it doesn't matter if it's off by a little, I demand tons out of my bio filters sometimes, and I've never lost a fish to something like ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. This is one of two jobs in my life.... Pretty tough to make a living if you don't perfect what you do.

Sorry boss. When I hear "FISH FREE CYCLE" I think of.... NO FISH. As in "fish free". lol. No fish personalities to read, no knowing how ur fish work. Just adding ammonia to an empty tank over a period of time until the filter is established and able to neutralize it.


Thats why i said "just knowing when its done" is scary. because you are literally adding ammonia from a bottle to a tank and adding fish too soon would be scary. Sorry if I misunderstood the fish free cycle.

[joeymac]

I definitely wasn't questioning ur ability to raise, keep, grow, breed or sell discus or ur knowledge of them. I think we have extremely different views of a fish free cycle tho.


Good day, sir.

[GrayLadyPat]

Unlike most of y'all, my tank was already established with a healthy bioload and weekly water changes when I unexpectedly got DISCUS!!! and had to learn a whole new way of thinking. It took a couple of weeks, but I had to deal with pH crashes and rises, and wonky water parameters before everything settled down and is running smoothly again. In my case, adding 4 large fish at the same time really messed with my parameters.

Now that things are doing what they need to do in the tank, I can safely say that I have more fish in my tank than originally planned, but it's healthier than it has been due to the added water changes with discus.

In my experiences "before discus" bioload is more important when adding new fish and plants than it is in established tanks. The more you add, the more time it will take for the cycle to settle down and do its thing, which is why new aquarists are usually told "no more than one inch of fish per gallon" and "Only add one or two fish every few weeks" as a general guide... After it all lines out the way it's supposed to, water changes and watching your fish are much more important than worrying about how many inches of fish you have compared to your tank size.