Removing juwel filter

[Country joe]

I have now purchased a fluval 205 canister, have it set up in the aquarium, just the filter material from the interior filter to add, have managed to cut out the interior filter, but have left it running, as planning to take it out Sunday.
Then I will do a small water change, filling a plastic bin, I have two spare heaters, thinking of putting one in the bin, and adding the old filter material, is this a good idea, how long would the bacteria survive? And how long would the fish be okay in the tank, I have a small interior filter running in the tank, and I will also have two air stones, and my new heater set up.
My reason for putting filter material in bin with water, is I will have to take my time and cut sponges to size.

 

[Essjay]

The fish will be OK for a few hours. Mine have been OK for 8 hours during a planned power cut.
The bacteria will be fine in even just damp sponges. They won't die off lifting the sponges out of water to cut them up.

 

[Country joe]

A couple of last questions I may have to pack the sponges tightly, as I also have a bag of ceramics that's been in the aquarium for a couple of months, probably a silly question but packing the sponges tightly does this effect the bacteria, and because the Fluval has two large sponges inside, I would like to replace all the containers with ceramics, how long would the filter have to run, before I could do this, obviously just doing one container at a time.

 

[Essjay]

I wouldn't bother with ceramics, sponges are a better biomedium.

If you really want to replace the sponges, do the baskets one at a time with a couple of months between. Change the one last in the direction of water flow first so that any biofilm which comes loose is washed into the new media. Then when you change the later ones, move the previous ceramics round so the new ones are last in the water flow.

As long as water can flow through sponges, they can be tightly packed.