OK to shut off filter for 15 hours?

[Tostada]

I've got a 30 gal hex that currently has:

1 male betta
3 danios (1 female zebra, 1 male zebra, 1 female longfin)
6 velvet wag swords (4 female, 2 male)
5 panda corys
8 glass shrimp
2 bunches of anacharis

Tomorrow I'm going to go to build a new hood for it, and I wanted to just take the lid with me to get the dimentions perfect. I figured I'd take out about 25-30% of the water and shut off the filter just to make sure the fish couldn't jump out. I won't get back for about 15 hours, then I'd finish the water change and put the lid back on.

I have an 8" bubble wand that gets plenty of circulation in there. I actually have a valve restricting it to about 1/3 the regular flow since it turns the tank into a washing machine. I'd turn it up a little when I shut the filter off.

I could leave the filter going, but there would be a whole lot of splashing going on, so I figured it'd just be better to shut it off. I've got a Penguin 200.

Or, I could just put a box on top for a lid while I'm gone, but that might get some condensation and get soggy.

Also... leaving the filter shut off isn't going to kill the bacteria on the wheel in just 15 hours, is it?

 

[jsoong]

With the filter shut off, your bio-wheel will go dry and your bio-bugs will be dead.

I'd use a piece of glass or plastic as a cover for the 15 hrs. In a pinch, you can tie a plastic bag to the top (just make sure you hake a bunch of air holes).

 

[HannahJ]

Turning off the filter for that long is a bad idea. All or most of your nitrifying bacteria will die without the water moving over them, and the lack of nitrification, plus the dead bacteria, will cause ammonia to skyrocket. I once lost a whole tank of fish to an overnight power outage that I missed while asleep. I second finding a back up cover method--saran wrap can work wonders.

 

[push350z]

I have a penguin 350 and i've had the lid off while doing some fiddling in the tank with a lower water level and none of the splashing was significant enough to exit the tank, all the splashes stayed inside. Perhaps try lowering the water level a little and keeping the filter running to see how bad the splashing is, and find the minimum water level you can have before the filter starts to struggle sucking the water up.

 

[Guest]

Just cover it with some egg crate/cardboard or anything. Leave the filter running. You are worrying about this too much.

Filter media must stay wet and also have some presence on amonia to keep bacteria alive

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Take a piece of plastic wrap and put it over the top of the tank where the lid usually is. Don't cover the tank completly. Shutting off the filter for that long of a time span is not a good idea.

 

[Tostada]

Thanks .... I'll just leave it going and make sure to get some kind of lid on there.

 

[Ferret_Friend]

I lost power for over six hours yesterday, and my water parameters are completely out of control from not doing water changes while I'm waiting for my python to come in. All of my fish are still alive. I don't know how quite frankly, but they are.