Life of Bacteria

[Quake2player]

Does the beneficial bacteria on my Emperor bio-wheel die after the the filter is shutdown for a few hours (more like 5 hours)? I just went through a "day" project as I changed my 29 [acronym:42a68b8bf2="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:42a68b8bf2] tank out for a new 29 [acronym:42a68b8bf2="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:42a68b8bf2] (ths silicone has been peeling off from the inside), and also went with mostly fluorite for my new substrate as I've gotten hooked onto plants thanx to this forum.
Some things I did to try my best to "keep" beneficial bacteria:

- Used about 1/3 of the old water, but it was mixed with tap treated with stress zyme dechlorinating treatment... so I don't know how harmful the new treated water is to the existing bacteria I was moving over.
- laid out a thin layer on the bottom with old gravel and dirty water.
- then layered the top layer after a couple of inches of fluorite with the old gravel.
- Using old Emperor with the "dirty" cartridge still in place.
- And I'm hoping the bacteria on the bio-wheel is still good as it wasn't spinning for nearly 5 hours which is what it took for me to rinse out the bags of fluorite, net my fish into a bucket, empty water, move the tanks, etc.

The water was cloudy for most of last nite... that white cloud, and it seemed to get better by this morning. I will test nitrite and nitrate when I get home later.

[An t-iasg]

The gravel and any decorations will have some good bacteria on them too. The water itself won't have a lot of bacteria but it's good to transfer it over like you did so the fish won't be stressed by the possibility of the new and old water having slightly different temps, pH, etc. If you would need to do any maintenance on the filter and unplug it for awhile, just take the bio-wheel off and float it in the tank, or in a bucket of tank water.

During those 5 hours, if it was in tank water but not spinning in the filter, you should be ok. If it dried out you may have a mini-ammonia spike. It's always a good idea to check your parameters after doing a move like this. If you do get a mini spike of ammonia or nitrite, the bacteria will catch up again soon. It won't be like cycling a brand new tank, but do your tests every day until you're sure everything is back to normal.

[BrianNY]

The nitrifying bacteria is very fragile and needs water movement to proliferate. I would say 5 hours may have killed off most of it. Keep an eye open for the mini cycle. [acronym:a5e7adf2c7="Just My Opinion"]JMO[/acronym:a5e7adf2c7]

[FancyGuppyGuy]

Personally I think you'll be ok. bacteria are fragile but they had water and air so they should be just fine. its when they get dried out you have to worry.

[Quake2player]

Thanx for the replies. Great idea with floating the bio-wheel... I could've saved millions of bacteria.

I forgot to mention, I did hold my live plants in a bucket of old water... so I hope that will soften the shock of any mini-cycles that are occuring.
The immediate response of my fish seemed ok... rosey barbs were swimming towards front and top begging for food... same w/my Ram... school of neons was kindof schooling around the back... corys act like nothing happened.