How long before bacteria colonies start dying off...
- Thread starter Clankeye
- Start date
If dry, not long (I don't expose my media to air for more than 10 minutes max).
As far as 'starving' by just being in water, you have quite a bit before you start to see any noticeable drop-offs. Just keep them in your old tank water as this will also help.
If you use the logic from the cycle-process, 3+ppm ammonia can be processed in well under 24 hours...and that's for a poorly established (new) tank and thusly for the nitrItes...I would say you have the time easily to do any swap you want, but certinaly not long enough to culture the other insert.
Another way of looking at this is, every month or so do you replace the filter for a new? Any affects?
Also, I have lost power for 6+ hours and was away from home, and I had no adverse effects. Remember a LOT - if not most - of your beneficial bacteria reside in your tank (gravel, decorations, etc.) - assuming a well established tnak of course.
What's your goal here? Also can you not just placed both in the HOT (place the new instert in front - 1st contact with water)? If you want to seed anotehr tank, there are FAR easier and more effective ways...
I'm not sure what the gain is here, or the purpose.
As far as 'starving' by just being in water, you have quite a bit before you start to see any noticeable drop-offs. Just keep them in your old tank water as this will also help.
If you use the logic from the cycle-process, 3+ppm ammonia can be processed in well under 24 hours...and that's for a poorly established (new) tank and thusly for the nitrItes...I would say you have the time easily to do any swap you want, but certinaly not long enough to culture the other insert.
Another way of looking at this is, every month or so do you replace the filter for a new? Any affects?
Also, I have lost power for 6+ hours and was away from home, and I had no adverse effects. Remember a LOT - if not most - of your beneficial bacteria reside in your tank (gravel, decorations, etc.) - assuming a well established tnak of course.
What's your goal here? Also can you not just placed both in the HOT (place the new instert in front - 1st contact with water)? If you want to seed anotehr tank, there are FAR easier and more effective ways...
I'm not sure what the gain is here, or the purpose.
G
Ghost_shrimp27
Guest
Well, that depends. The bacteria need oxygen and ammonia to survive. I imagine there'd be enough waste on the filter media in various stages of decomposition to sustain for them a little bit. However, like I said, they need oxygen. The O2 content of your bucket of water is going to depend on the temperature of the water, the amount of surface agitation and the surface area exposed to air. Given that you're probably keeping the bucket in a room that's probably somewhere in the ballpark of 65-70 degrees.......probably no more than a few hours. I'm sure the bacteria are metabolizing the available O2 faster than it can be replaced by dffusion. Plus, the water is stagnant, so there's no opportunity for air to really mingle well with the surface. Put an airstone in the bucket with the filter media and you can buy yourself some more time.
It's not like the bacteria colony is all going to die off completely after a certain time period elapses. Rather, it's going to start shrinking in size as the O2 and ammonia levels drop off. So, even after a few hours pass, you'll probably still have some bacteria left. It just won't be as strong a colony as you started out with. The longer you wait, the fewer you'll have left until, eventually, they all die. I would imagine that that would take a pretty long time.
It's not like the bacteria colony is all going to die off completely after a certain time period elapses. Rather, it's going to start shrinking in size as the O2 and ammonia levels drop off. So, even after a few hours pass, you'll probably still have some bacteria left. It just won't be as strong a colony as you started out with. The longer you wait, the fewer you'll have left until, eventually, they all die. I would imagine that that would take a pretty long time.
First of all, thanks for the replies. I appreciate it.
The purpose here is that a HOT Magnum filter comes with two possibilities--to use it as a micron filter for polishing water and removing smaller particles, or to use it with regular media like a conventional filter. You can't do both at the same time. So my question was trying to establish how long I could keep the micron filter in the canister and run it before the bacteria in my convential media (which I would have to take out while using the micron) would start to die off or be weakened.
if you give them the 3 things of survival, food (ammonia/nitrite), oxygen, and surface area, it will be able to live a while. Like what was said earlier putting an airstone in the bucket will buy you some more time, if there is already fish waste dont bother feeding with ammonia, if its clean of fish waste maybe put a pinch of fish food in there.
while i've never tested this, here's my educated guess: as with any living biology, there's always a differential among a group with regard to chemical sensitivity and other parameters. some of the bacteria will die within hours, providing ammonia for those still living ... and so on. the length of time it takes ALL the bacteria to die off depends on the density of the colony to begin with. very generally, i think it's safe to say you've got about 72 hours before the bacteria begin to die off and perhaps a week before they're all gone. this assumes you've kept them wet for the entire time.
I didn't mean to come off snippy btw, sorry if I did.
I didn't know these 2 filter media could not be combined. I learned something new!
We all discuss these bacteria ad infinitum, but how much do we really know about them (speaking for myself here), like what temperature ranges do they prefer/tolerate, how long can they last in the absence of food, do they produce spores, how mobile are they... etc. You've got me curious... i think some research is in order!
If you'd like to keep the filter bacteria for weeks, I'd try putting it in the fridge (keep wet, not airtite - they should keep growing at fridge temp, just very slowly) and give it fresh aquarium water every week. That might work. Just guessing though. Other than that, liv2padl's recommendations sound reasonable.
If you'd like to keep the filter bacteria for weeks, I'd try putting it in the fridge (keep wet, not airtite - they should keep growing at fridge temp, just very slowly) and give it fresh aquarium water every week. That might work. Just guessing though. Other than that, liv2padl's recommendations sound reasonable.
I didn't mean to come off snippy btw, sorry if I did.
I didn't know these 2 filter media could not be combined. I learned something new!
Not to worry, CT--I didn't take it that way.
This is what I am going to do. Siphon out a bucket of my tank water while doing a light gravel vac. Stick an airstone in the bucket along with the regular bio media from the canister. Run the micron filter for about three hours and then switch the reg media back in. I'm pretty sure this would have no effect on the bacteria. My question really formed around wondering if I could leave the micron filter in for more than 24 hours. But--there's probably no need to ever do that anyway. The tank is a 55gal.