Will my BB survive tap water?!?

[BettaFishGirl]

I have a new tank I setup for a friend and I used one of my seeded filters with lots of beneficial bacteria so the tank already had lots of beneficial bacteria in it when I added the filter. Fast forward a few weeks, the water parameters have been perfect (Ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-10) and so I went away for a week and the filter got a little clogged and wasn't flowing as much. I told my friend to rinse one of the small sponges (there is multiple filter sponges and a filter cartridge) in tap water for 2 seconds, quickly squeeze it, then put it back in the filter. I don't know if she misunderstood me but she rinsed all of the filter media in tap water for longer than a couple seconds. I'm worried that the BB died in the tap water. When I set the tank up I squeezed the sponges in the main tank and it got really cloudy, so I'm hoping there is some still in the tank. When I get home I'm getting some bottled bacteria for a new tank so if I add that it will it hopefully help? There is a mystery snail and a couple cherry shrimp.

Thank you!!

 

[Slaphppy7]

You can avoid this situation by always rinsing filter media (sponges, ceramics, etc) in old tank water.

How much of the BB in the tap-rinsed media survived can be debatable, but I never take that risk, it is much easier for me to rinse my media in a bowl of old tank water next to my tanks.

If the tank has been set up for quite some time, then BB will have colonized in other areas of the tank (substrate, deco, etc), but with new tank, most of the BB will be in the filter(s)

For just a few shrimp and a snail, there won't be much ammonia generated anyway, so the tank water should be fine; I would test it for ammonia and perform WC's, if necessary

 

[BettaFishGirl]

And I usually do that but I wanted to make it easier for her but I will tell her to do that next time.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The odds are good much, if not close to all, of the bacteria survived. The odds of this go up if there was any dechlor in the tank water. If dechlor has been added in the past 36 hours or less, that still likely helps.

Once he bacteria jas colonized it lives inside a biofilm it creates. Other types of bacteria join the nitrifiers in that biofilm. Chlorine takes close to 24 hours for penetrate that biofilm fully. Chloramine, when theere is some ammonia present, only puts the bacteria to sleep. Once the chlorine part is gone leaving the ammonia part behind, the bacteria wake back up.

However, due to the uncertainties involved with tap water contents for chlorine/chloramine, it makes the most sense to use a dechlor and to be safe, Also, rinse the media in water removed from the tank. I do this for ease but I have well water and it has no chlorine/chloramine.

In the old days before chloramines hobbyists could just let their chlorinated tap water sit out in a container and the the chlorine, which is a gas, would evaporate. Adding an airstone or other surface agitator shortened the time needed. Chlormines do not evaporate.