Biofilter Question

G

g_t

Registered Member
Apr 29, 2007
2
0
0
Houston, TX
Hellos, I have a 12 gallon Eclipse System tank. I unplug the lights and filters as I do water changes. Does stopping the biofilter from running cause problems for my bacteria populations?

Particularly, interested in knowing this when you also vacuum the gravel...I heard that this can kill some bacteria too?

Thanks much.
gab
 
Bacteria largely hangs onto the substrate, therefore very little gets taken out with the vacuuming. Plus what does get taken out, well, it's bacteria. It reproduces at extremely fast rates.

I usually unplug the filters if I'm doing a very large water change, just to avoid the filter running dry. I try to leave them on when doing water changes that are smaller and won't pull the water level below the filter intake. But I don't think having the filter unplugged for a few minutes really kills much, if any bacteria as long as the filter media stays wet.
 
As long as the bio wheel and media don't dry out it should be ok, you could always take them out and place them in a container with tank water, it should be ok for about an hour or so if there left in the filter...
 
Gravel Vacs and more specifically WCs will not hurt your bacterias. If things are wet/moist, they will survive a long, long time (i.e. survives many a power outage at my house!). Unless things dry out for a time, but even then they are fairly hardy, and most will survive for a short time. Anything over 20-30 out of the water and I would consider placing the media/biowheel in some tank water.

I'm not familiar w/ the Eclipse 12 - Do you have to shut everything off for your maintenance? I have the eclipse 3 and leave everything running :shrug:
 
dittto what CT said.. if im doing a water change, i unplug my filters ONLY if i know the water level is going to go below the intake.. otherwise, leave em on.

as for the biowheels, i place them in the tank while i'm doing the change.. the fish pick at them and eat whatever gunk has built up, and they stay nice and moist.
 
Hey all, Well I was cleaning my small 3 gal eclipse. as the water level in the tank drew down the pump started losing prime and stopped altogether being able to draw water up to the filter (the water level was above the intake still). Ever since then I am worried about overstressing the pumps so I leave them off...

No one else has this issue? Maybe it's my pump...

Anyway, I won't worry about the little bacteria too much then :)
 
If I draw lower than my intakes, then yes I do shut them off for the same reason you mentioned :)
 
I always turn off the pumps when doing gravel vac, sometimes when doing pwc's... just depends....
 
If your filter has extensions so that the intake is below half way, then you can probably leave it on, but the water falling from that high can cause some disruption of the gravel. Make sure that you UNPLUG your heater if you are doing a large water, or at times even small, as some heaters should not be operated if the water level is below their minimum line.
 
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