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How long can bacteria live in a canister...


Morcs

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...with the power turned off?

Our power went so low last night that two important things happened:

1) Could not watch outrageous fortune

2) Not enough power to run any of my filters.

My canister was turned off for about 3 hours. Will all my lovely bacteria be dead?

(they wouldve been in still water the whole time, around 25C)

cheers

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It is my understanding the bacteria starts to die off within about half an hour (I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong) but the majority will survive a power cut up to 24 hours if the media is kept wet. After 24 hours, and depending on stocking levels, you may have a mini cycle as the dead bacteria are replaced but water changes and careful feeding for the next 2 weeks ought to be enough to keep things fine.

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I accidentally unplugged the filter on my big african tank for 3 days when I was flat out, chucked food in the tank when I left every morning.. Only noticed that the filter was off because the tank went brown, so did a water change and plugged the filter in, all the fish were fine. Now no matter how busy I am I always look at the filter outlet and make sure it is going :)

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I accidentally unplugged the filter on my big african tank for 3 days when I was flat out, chucked food in the tank when I left every morning.. Only noticed that the filter was off because the tank went brown, so did a water change and plugged the filter in, all the fish were fine. Now no matter how busy I am I always look at the filter outlet and make sure it is going :)

But then, I've had a 6 hour power outage, let the filter turn back on when the power came back, next morning 50 or so tetras were dead.

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But then, I've had a 6 hour power outage, let the filter turn back on when the power came back, next morning 50 or so tetras were dead.

Same thing here, which is why I'd err on the side of caution. I had a canister off not even 2 hours while I was moving a tank, and when I put it back on the tank it killed over 150 3-4cm angelfish.

I think it depends on how dirty the filter is, and how much oxygen is in the water.

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It is all about balance. Fish can survive quite well in an aquariumm without aeration or a filter provided the tank is not overloaded with fish. What we do often is raise the temperature to make the fish more active and this uses more oxygen and depletes the ability of the water to hold oxygen so we aerate to compensate, and then we overload with fish to make the tank look busier and add a filter so when the filter and aeration stop with a power cut it all goes to custard.

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...with the power turned off?

Our power went so low last night that two important things happened:

1) Could not watch outrageous fortune

2) Not enough power to run any of my filters.

My canister was turned off for about 3 hours. Will all my lovely bacteria be dead?

(they wouldve been in still water the whole time, around 25C)

cheers

:oYOU MISSED OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE?! :o

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i think this is one of those questions that is very interesting to find an answer to but doesn't effect us to any great amount.

I understand about the bacteria etc & what it does but everything i do against "the facts of bacteria" never does any harm to my fish at all.

Every 4 to 6 weeks i unplug the filters & empty/clean/flush them completely including piping at the same time i do a 40% water change, hook it all back up & get it running again. In theory i have killed all bacteria that i had & now my tank should totally or partly re-cycle to build up the bacteria again.

I have around 30 africans in a 200L tank so stocking is high & never had an issue in almost 3 years. I used to worry about it but really don't see the need to anymore, there are more imprtant things to worry about than how much the bacteria is effected if the power goes off or if i do a complete clean of the filters. :D

a few weeks ago we lost power for 12 hours or so, the only thing that happened was the temp dropped a few degrees, the power came back on & there was no problem at all.

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i have taken filter baskets out full of media and left them in a bucket of water, no filter, no heater, no oxygen, for more than a few weeks and the bacteria had grown everywhere inside of the bucket.water was very clean. i thought they would of died. so left them in there and has multiplied even more since i last checked it last week. :-? ive never had problems with bacteria dying, filter changes, fish dying because of it etc.

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Lets not forget that bacteria also grows on things in the tank - rocks, wood etc..

I wash all my sponges under taps, but only ever clean noodles and bioballs in the canister water, then remove them and clean the canister.

Im sure my fish will be fine. Was getting really worried going to bed, but just before I fell asleep decided to check the power and it was working again, so was able to switch everything back on :)

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Lets not forget that bacteria also grows on things in the tank - rocks, wood etc..

I wash all my sponges under taps, but only ever clean noodles and bioballs in the canister water, then remove them and clean the canister.

Im sure my fish will be fine. Was getting really worried going to bed, but just before I fell asleep decided to check the power and it was working again, so was able to switch everything back on :)

The amount of bacteria on the glass etc is tiny. Thts why we use filters when we have a high bioload, because the bacteria in the tank cannot support the waste output of the fish.

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What about those bottles of bacteria you buy . how do they survive without aeration? (or food for that matter?) whilst still sitting in the botttles.

In the last several months I have started 3 small tanks.. I used TLC on two of them, which helped the cycle I believe and on the other I used JBL Filter Start and this was the only tank never to show ammonia..and still hasn't. I put a BN in the day after I added the bacteria. in 3 days it went from zero ammonia to trace nitrates so obviously the cycle process took place so the bacteria must have been good. Have never had ammonia or even nitrite readings from that tank.

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What about those bottles of bacteria you buy . how do they survive without aeration? (or food for that matter?) whilst still sitting in the botttles.

In the last several months I have started 3 small tanks.. I used TLC on two of them, which helped the cycle I believe and on the other I used JBL Filter Start and this was the only tank never to show ammonia..and still hasn't. I put a BN in the day after I added the bacteria. in 3 days it went from zero ammonia to trace nitrates so obviously the cycle process took place so the bacteria must have been good. Have never had ammonia or even nitrite readings from that tank.

In that case id increase the bioload quicker so get a larger amount of bacteria forming in a shorter space of time :)

Valid point about the bottles too.

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I used to work for a sewage treatment plant that basically worked like a giant wet/dry filter - even had its own sort of bio-noodles. They had found in other plants that the plant could be revived easily if it had not been running for 2 weeks. The bacteria colonies just kicked straight back into action

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