How Many Fish Can I Place In My Pond?
To accurately answer that question - it is critical to think of fish in terms of weight, not length. For example 10 inches of fish: Is that ten 1" fish, five 2" fish, two 5" fish, or one 10" fish? Think fish weight, not fish length because their weight increases exponentially with length. Fish produce waste as a percentage of their weight.
Koi and pond fish produce up to 1/3 of their body weight in waste per day. A 30 gram fish can produce 10 grams of waste per day. So, if you know how much fish waste a biofilter can metabolize, you'll be able to calculate how much fish, by weight, it can effectively support.
1 gram of Fish Waste is Produced From 3 Grams of Fish.
(1 to 3 ratio)
If you've calculated that a biological filtration system (by Total SSA) can process 10 grams of fish waste - simply multiple that by 3 to accurately calculate how much fish, by weight, produced the 10 grams of waste. 10 x 3 = 30.
Total Grams of Fish Waste x 3 =
Total Grams of Fish Weight the Filter Can Support
Example: 100 grams of fish waste is created by 300 grams of fish. (100 x 3 = 300)
Example: The Ahi Hydro Vortex™ filter with its 677 SSA can metabolize 135.40 grams of fish waste, thus the Ahi can support 406.20 grams of total combined fish weight. (135.40 x 3 = 406.20)
Next, go to the Fish Weight chart to see what size, and how many fish totaling 406.20 grams the filter can support. Then, figure in the total water volume for an accurate measurement of how many fish the pond can support.
