Which foods sour water fastest?

[fish4all]

Really straight forward, which ones foul the water faster?
Blood worms
Meat cubes
Cut up shrimp
Pellets
Cut up nightcrawler
BBS
Grindal worms
White Worms

I listed them in order that I guess is about right.

 

[manderkeeper]

I'm not sure. Take several cups of water from the same bottle and run three samples for each species. Leave the food in for 48 hours, remove, and test the water quality?

 

[LSuzuki]

I don't know either, and like the idea of running a test. If you have time to run a test, please report the results! (Include pH, temp, and things like that. Inquiring minds want to know!)

I am going to go our on a limb and say, dead things with the most surface area per volume are likely to contaminate the tank fastest. So if frozen bring shrimp were on the list, I would bet that. BBS usually go into the tank live, and at a low volume, so I would expect them to not cause as fast of a problem as frozen brine shrimp. Pellets that turn to mush are probably pretty high on the list too.

Out of curiousity, why the question?

 

[bellyache]

Really straight forward, which ones foul the water faster?
Blood worms
Meat cubes
Cut up shrimp
Pellets
Cut up nightcrawler
BBS
Grindal worms
White Worms

I listed them in order that I guess is about right.

I would say frozen bloodworms are the worst, any leftover soon rot and smell foul

 

[fish4all]

Just curious what everyone thought really.

I don't leave bloodworms for more than 6-8 hours normally.

I don't have the equipment to a proper test yet but I will be getting the tests soon so maybe then.

I imagine that fouling the water test is gonna be the best done with the nose test and a visual test. Not sure how much a person would see on a statard set of aquarium tests in 48 hours but who knows.

 

[rachel1]

If the water volume is small, you would most definitely get an ammonia reading, and probably a pretty high one. Generally by the time there's an odor, water quality is pretty terrible. Your test kit should be more accurate than your nose, but all the values should be recorded and compared.. I would actually test sooner than 48 hours, as I have concerns your ammonia could be off the chart. Again, depending on starting water volume. Multiple tests would be even more fun! You could test at 6 hours, 12 hours, 18, 24, etc. I'm picturing a little cup. Make sure you have a control with just water, and you would need to have equal amounts by weight or volume in each container, because more food decaying=more ammonia. Great science project idea!

 

[auntiejude]

Anything dead and uneaten. Thats why live food are always better.