How Long Can You Leave A Filter Not Connected

[superman1]

hello.

i have an external filter which has all the good bacteria in it etc etc.

but wanted to know how long can i leave the filter turned off and not connected to the tank for it to be safe when i reconnect it in terms of keeping that good bacteria.

thanks

 

[8inary]

if your filter is off, the good bacteria inside will start to die off - some say between 6-9 hours - after which the bacteria is dead

 

[Tolak]

As long as the media is kept wet they will die off at the rate at which they grow. A mature colony of nitrifying bacteria is capable of doubling in 24 hours. This means you could expect a 50% reduction in 24 hours. There is a topic on this on TFF, it will take me a bit of time to find it.

If the nitrifying bacteria dies that quickly, shipping mature media or filters would not work. I've shipped as well as received mature media & filters, good results both ways.

*** Edit To Add***

Found it; http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...amp;hl=bacteria Post #4.

This doesn't mean it is a good thing to intentionally turn off your filter, but it does give you some idea of the die off rate. Turning off the filter is playing with fire, it's only a matter of time.

 

[rabbut]

But, if the colony runs out of oxygen, rather than just food....

Without food, 5-12% a day die-off is estimated

Without oxygen 90% per hour is estimated

The issue with Exturnals, is that lack of oxygen gets to the bacteria quickly. If you loose power, you need to be syphening a bucket of water through your filter every hour or so, or you need to throw all the media into the main tank... I persume when Tolak ships media, he bags with plenty of air, hence the success rate? Lack of oxyeng is less of a worry for internal filters

It is to be noted, that it will take a while for the bacteria to die-back due to lack of oxygen, as running out of oxygen won't immediately kill the bacteria. They must first run out of oxygen, and then motabolise nitrate back to ammonia before they get into bother, so die-back won't nessisarily start imediately

All the best
Rabbut

 

[superman1]

ok well all of that info was very usefull. i recently purchased a tank and used external filter but hadnt been home to drop it off so i reckon the matured filter media is presumeably all dead of good bacteria. guess i will have to start the whole cycle again.

darn.

thanks for the info though guys.

p.s would it be worth me starting off again with all new media as i know the guy who had the extrernal hadnt changed the media in at least 4-6 months

 

[Tolak]

I have one tank running canisters, it has survived power outages the same as with other filters. If 90% of the nitrifying bacteria dies per hour, after 3 hours they should be better than 99% dead. This has not been my experience.

 

[fish.com1]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but i am soon going to be changing my tanks substrate. This is going to involve me taking the fish out of the tank and bagging them up and taking all the water out etc. The tank (and filter media) is 7 months old. I anticipate that this will take me about 2-3 hours from bagging up the fish to acclimatising them again. Should i put the filter media in a bucket of tank water during this time and the bacteria should survive for the 2- 3 hours? When filling up the tank i am going to keep at least 70% of the original tank water so in effect will be doing a 30% water change.

 

[rabbut]

I tend to treat filter bacteria as fish, they get bagged with lots of air and just enough water to confortably cover the media