In aquaria, bioload refers to the amount of waste produced from maintaining living organisms. It is most often discussed within the context of how much filtration a system needs. Generally speaking, the higher the bioload the more filtration is needed. However, accurately estimating bioload is nearly impossible. It relies on variables such as the number of organisms, lifestage, species, feeding regime, total system volume, supplementation, and tank age.
For example, a 100 gallon aquarium with a 3 Oscar Cichlids, would have a much lower bioload than a fully planted aquarium with 5 discus, 30 guppies, and a large pleco.
As you would expect, deciding on the correct amount of filtration is equally complex. Fortunately, over the course of our 40 year history we can point to hundreds of installations that require high bioload.
How our filters work:
All of our systems rely on biological filtration, relying on naturally occurring bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrates and nitrites. These nitrifying bacteria are crucial for maintaining water quality and fish health.
Our freshwater systems utilize our Bio Spool filter as a medium for bacteria growth. Spools are submerged, and water is drawn through the spool using an air pump. For larger systems, BioSpools can be added and/or daisy chained together to increase the amount of biological filtration.
Our biospools were developed in the 1970's to create the worlds most effective turtle filter. However, they work equally well for all aquatic environments. You can find additional information on our biospools HERE.
Additionally, we employ aquatic plants in our filtration system. These plants are grown either in the habitat directly, in an external sump, or aquaponically.
Example 1: Retail Fish Units
Our freshwater rack system was originally designed for use in aquatic fish stores. These retail environments often have higher than normal bioload requirements due to:
- Constant fish rotation
- High fish densities
- Generalized feeding regimes
- Fish loss
On our standard freshwater rack, each tier is its own 75 gallon system that contains 2-6 biospools, with 3 per tier being the most common. Water is pulled through the biospools using an air pump. However, we can connect tiers and feed them to a sump. This gets you a larger total volume and can fit other filtration devices. This is standard in our marine racks, where we include 5 spools for a 225 gallon system.
Example 2: Crowley's Ridge Nature Center
The most relevant example we have for you is our installation at Forrest L. Wood Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center in Arkansas. They have a few large displays including one with young alligators, a large snapping turtle, assorted sliders, and native fish. I believe it was over 300 pounds of wildlife during installation.
That system used 24 bio spools and sump grown aquatic plants for additional biological filtration capacity. Another exhibit of theirs has a much larger water volume, but with similar filtration. They use it for water snakes, gar and other native fish. We installed these units 12 years ago and they are still in active use today.
