Nitrobactera lifespan

Can't give you a precise answer but as long as there is water in the filter, meaning that the media is wet, and that there is food for the bacteria, meaning you have a pouch of carbon and/or zeolite in there, I'd say at least a week.

Maybe someone else can provide more precise answer.

SB
 
I would suggest keeping it down to a number of hours at most. Without the filter running in a wet filter you start to have an O2 shortage fairly quickly and secondly there is no nutrient supply. With a wet/dry the O2 might be less of a problem, but you risk drying out and there is still the lack of nutrient. The longer it goes the more losses you would suffer.
 
Sponge Bob said:
Can't give you a precise answer but as long as there is water in the filter, meaning that the media is wet, and that there is food for the bacteria, meaning you have a pouch of carbon and/or zeolite in there, I'd say at least a week.
Click to expand...

I'm curious, sponge. What part would the carbon and zeolite play?

tim
 
But what if the filter is inside the aquarium and water is always present?
I think the bacteria should last at least a day, or even more. But I wanted to be sure. Few hours seem a bit small - the regular cleaning of the aquarium can last 2-3 hours.
 
there needs to be oxygen in the water as well as a source of ammonia to feed it

i guess that not many people really experiment with how long the bacteria lives for unless they lose all fish in one go

but a lot of people have problems if there filter gets switched off due to a power outage or such

so probably very hard to say how long they live for

people do manage to move without losing their cycle


dont know if any of this helps

really curious as to why you are interested
 
They don't just all die at once, but you can get a steady reduction. Depending on the situation I imagine a day or two might not be a problem. My point was more that is the period the filter is off should be measured in hours rather than days - ie 6-12 hours rather than 6-12 days :) Also remember that bacteria live throughout the tank... Mind you, I don't switch off the filter for regular cleaning, but each situation is different. I have my tanks set up so that a 30% water change (at least) is possible with the filter on. Cleaning the actual filter pads only takes a few minutes, so I will shut it of for that. I clean glass with the filter on, etc...
 
My friend got a gold fish in a bowl and a filter inside (she will soon ditch the bowl and buy a tank). The filter noise annoys her (she can't sleep) and I told her to switch it off during the night. Other guy said that this would kill the nitro bacterias, but I didn't think that was possible.

I never had any problems with the filter when shut off for tank cleaning.
 
amosf said:
I'm curious, sponge. What part would the carbon and zeolite play?

tim
Click to expand...

Nutrients are present in the filter media and provide ammo. Furthermore, the O2 exchange is still going on even if the water is still. Remember, we are not talking about fish but bacteria. Their need is far less than a fish. Research on filter media and bacteria for more info on the subject.

Furthermore, the bacteria present in the gravel ( if any ) will still stay alive.

Regards,

SB

PS : I surely don't advise to shut down the filter of any aquarium/bowl for the night. Solve the noise problem instead. The way you presented your topic, I thought you were talking about a fishless, waterless tank that was left alone for a week or so. Shutting the filtration for a whole night will deprive the fish of needed O2. Oh they will probably won't die, but it's not a good thing for sure.
 
Last edited:
Sponge Bob said:
Nutrients are present in the filter media and provide ammo. Furthermore, the O2 exchange is still going on even if the water is still. Remember, we are not talking about fish but bacteria. Their need is far less than a fish. Research on filter media and bacteria for more info on the subject.

Furthermore, the bacteria present in the gravel ( if any ) will still stay alive.

PS : I surely don't advise to shut down the filter of any aquarium/bowl for the night. Solve the noise problem instead. The way you presented your topic, I thought you were talking about a fishless, waterless tank that was left alone for a week or so. Shutting the filtration for a whole night will deprive the fish of needed O2. Oh they will probably won't die, but it's not a good thing for sure.
Click to expand...

I guess my point was more about what role the carbon and zeolite played in your comment above. I don't see how these are relivent and really zeolite has no real purpose in a tank filter IMO, and carbon only has specific uses so is only needed now and then.

In any case, O2 is a fairly limmited resource in water and will max out at a mere 8ppm or so in a heated aquarium. In a confined filter with oxidizing reactions taking place (ie NH3->NO2->NO3) the O2 could become scarce over a fairly short time. If you start working out what ammonia might be created by the decay in the media and how many ppm of that there might be and that reacts with how many ppm of O2... Well, you get my drift. Below 2ppm is bad for fish life and no doubt bacteria as well - actually below 4ppm is starting to get bad for fish in warm water...

I also agreed above that there are bacteria in the tank as well, but the nature of water supply in the filter means that the largest colonies are likely to be there.

In any case, if the filter is the only circulation the tank (bowl) has then O2 levels will indeed drop even in the tank over night. Gold fish can seem to survive. I know some carp can handle O2 as low as 1-2ppm, but frankly I would try other solutions than turning the filter off to sleep... ie Try some other background noise to mask the filter. I find the more you try to make things quiet so you can sleep, the smaller the noise has to be to disturb you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom