How long can aquarium bacteria survive?

[iansmith]

I will be moving my 20 gallon tank when I relocate in a few months.

One thing I have been wondering is how long can the ammonia eating bacteria survive in the filter once the water stops circulating?

I recall reading they don't have a spore stage, so they can not tolerate adverse conditions for too long before they die off.

Anyone know that max/min tempature before it kills them as well? I assume they can survive for a few months chilled, otherwise products like Bio_Spira and Fritz TurboStart would not be possible.

 

[rrkss]

If you keep them damp but exposed to air, they can survive for 48 hours. Chill them and they live longer.

 

[iansmith]

What if they are underwater but not exposed to air? Like in a canister filter?

I suppose this applies to both moving and a power outage.

How long can the power be out before a filters bacteria are dead?

Aquarium life would be so much easier if the nitrogen eating bactera could form spores like others do. Hmmm, where is that Mr. DNA splicer kit I had laying around...

 

[LunchBox]

roan took it to work with her minnows

how long is your tank going to be out of service? it sounds like if it'll be back up within a couple days you should be ok.

 

[iansmith]

Not too long, a few hours I think.

Thats pretty much what I was looking for.. can it live for a few hours? Days? Minutes?

Sounds like a few hours should not be an issue. Thanks!

 

[OrionGirl]

A few hours will be fine. If you can, leave the top of the canister on but not clamped down, to allow some gas exchange at the surface. At cooler temps, days--but under controlled environment (ie, chilled to the point where the bacteria are alive, but not burning through their food course). I wouldn't trust media that was cooled and re-heated multiple times, simply because it would probably have burned through the avaible food.

 

[Roan Art]

Nod OG

The bacteria need oxygen as well as water to survive.

I did *not* take it to work with my minnows! I don't have them yet

Don't you wish you knew what the secret was?

Roan

 

[iansmith]

So how long can they live with plenty of oxygen but no source of ammonia?

Now I'm just curious.

 

[OrionGirl]

Depends on temp, to some degree, but honestly, oxygen is more like food for them. They need it to consume ammonia--they don't breathe it like vertebrates. At a guess, I'd say providing ample oxygen but not ammonia wouldn't make a significant difference in their lifespan, particularly at warmer temps. It's possible that they can burn anaerobically for short periods of time (our own muscle tissue does this under certain circumstances), but it would be harmful to them in the long run. Just postulations there--biochem is NOT my specialty!

 

[rrkss]

Nitrification bacteria are autotrophic (make their own food) chemosynthetic bacteria. By chemosynthetic I mean that they extract their energy from oxydizing certain molecules. Ammonia is one of them and Nitrite is another. They react the molecule with oxygen which gives off some energy. With this energy they split CO2 + H2O and build C6H12O6 or glucose. Similar to photosynthesis in plants but via a different mechanism. This glucose is then stored or utilized for energy aerobically (requires oxygen). They work similar to plant in the sense that they can continue to live off of the stored glucose when ammonia or nitrite are not present but only if oxygen is present.