Filter Off For Too Long

loveforfhishies

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how long is to long to have your filter off for.. the reason im wondering is incase the power goes out or something and my filter is off for a while... will the bacteria die or what would happen?
 
Depends on many factors such as tank size,plants,which fish and how many,water temp.

I have once had to consider this also when I was on pre-pay electricity.There is no definitive answer but-in a correctly stocked tank without overally sensitive fish you should be alright for up to 24hrs before obvious signs of distress occur.After that it depends on the general health of the fish in the first place.I have returned after a weekend in my last place to find the elec had ran out 2 days prior and the only casualties were the sausages in my fridge.Bear in mind though...it cannot be taken for granted they would be OK.
 
Most of my fish books suggest 2 -3 hours is the Maximum. My filter has been off for ten hours and my tank was fine. :rolleyes:
 
A lot of it depends on the maturity and type of the tank. A well matured tank will have complex bacterial films over all the solid material in the tank - which if it has a gravel substrate and lots of plants will be quite significant. A newer tank relies much more heavily on the filter bacteria and so does a bare bottom tank with no plants.
 
The other problem is that once the bacteria in the filter dies off, you really need to wash out the media and start again. If the filter is off for a long period of time it can cause anerobic bacteria to produce nasty chemicals that can poison the tank when the filter starts again. A few hours is ok, but a prolonged period of time can be quite problematic. Trust your nose, if the tank smells bad when the filter starts again (a normal tank should smell like warm earth, a bit like a reptile house at the zoo), take it out, wash the filter out and do a large water change on the tank. I would do a large water change anyway to dilute the ammonia waste that would have built up from the fish. At this point you may go through a mini or perhaps more extensive cycle as the filter gets populated with bacteria again. Like Majjie says, if the tank is quite mature there will be colonies of nitrifying bacteria that will rapidly populate the filter again once the water begins to flow round the tank, but a newer tank may take longer to cycle again.

At this point you may well be cycling with fish unwittingly, so test the water daily, and if you see any ammonia or nitrite in the water, do a water change. Now this is a double edged sword because diluting the ammonia means the cycle takes longer, but is better on the fish. You could leave the water changes till the ammonia rises to a higher level but while the cycle wouldn't take as long, you could suffer more losses from your fish stock, particularly more sensitive fish.

Just a few pointers that are probably in a pinned topic somewhere, and have been mentioned in practical fishkeeping in their recent disaster management series.
 

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