AbstractConventional parameters for assessing effluent quality like the 5‐day biological oxygen demand, (BOD5), total suspended solids (TSS), and coliforms take from one to five days before the tests are completed. Simple, rapid, economical, and reliable methods to determine wastewater quality parameters are essential for the effective control of effluent discharges and the monitoring of process performance. If disinfection is necessary, these rapid methods may be used to quickly estimate the disinfection requirements and to ensure that the final effluent quality is microbiologically adequate. This is especially applicable to the sequencing batch reactor system, which treats wastewater in a batchwise manner. The 6‐h coliphage, 3‐h chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 1/2‐h total organic carbon (TOC) tests have been identified as rapid tests. Being microbiologically related, the coliphage test was shown to have a good degree of correlation with coliform levels in the effluent. Predictions of coliform numbers may be made by enumeration of the phages. The COD was also correlated and shown to produce a quick estimate of the total BOD5, TSS, and coliform values. Although the TOC test is based on the dissolved portion of the effluent, it may also be used as a rapid estimation of the total BOD5, TSS, and coliform values. ©1994 by John Wiley&So