How Long Does it Take for Chorine to Kill BB?

[ragin1cajun]

How Long Does it Take for Chorine to Kill BB?

I made a mistake this evening when doing a 50% PWC on our 29G tank. I am fish-in cycling this tank using the media from the successful cycle of a 6G tank. For the last week and a half, since moving the fish and filter media, I have been doing daily 50% water changes to bring down the Nitrites.

Here is the current stock of the tank:
3 GloFish (Danios)
3 Albino Cories
2 Amazon Sword Plants
1 Java Fern

Now, to my mistake.. I forgot to add Prime to the tank until after I refilled the tank and turned the filters on... The filters were probably on for maybe 5 minutes maybe less before I realized what I had done! I usually add Prime before I turn the water on to go into the tank but I am tired and got in a hurry!

So how bad is this mistake? Huge, as in I am starting at square 1 of cycling a tank? I am hoping it is not that bad!!

I am so upset with myself since I have finally started to see the Nitrites come down today and yesterday so I was thinking I was getting close to being cycled!

 

[phin]

hard to say. It depends on what the chlorine concentration of your tap is. but 5 minutes and 50% tap water sounds like you might have killed it off. See if you are getting an ammonia spike now.

 

[jcolon]

A 50% Non treated PWC running through the filters will probably kill off some BB, but chances are enough should survive to re-colonize. Keep in mind the chlorine / chloramine will be diluted with the tank water so the concentration level will be even less than your tap.

No need to panic until you test ...all you can do is just keep track of your water parameters. If you can get a little more media from that 6gal, you'll be in better shape.

 

[ragin1cajun]

but 5 minutes and 50% tap water sounds like you might have killed it off. See if you are getting an ammonia spike now.

I will be doing a water check when I get home from work this evening. I'm hoping that I will not be starting from square one.

No need to panic until you test ...all you can do is just keep track of your water parameters. If you can get a little more media from that 6gal, you'll be in better shape.

I am still in daily testing mode since I have been hoping until now that I was almost finished with the cycle. I will hope for the best the rest of the day until I can get home and test.

I am all out of filter media since I put all of it I could in the two filters I have running. I will update this evening after I get home and test.

David

 

[ragin1cajun]

Ok, I had to come home early due to having to pick up a sick kid from school. I just retested and it tests the same as before my mistake. So the chlorine must not have been high enough concentration in tap water to cause the tank concentration to get high enough to do too much damage..

I am sure it killed off some BB so my cycle might take longer. I can live with that, I just wasn't looking forward to starting completely over and it looks right now like I will not have to!

David

 

[ragin1cajun]

Hi All,

Thought I would post a quick update.. Last night when I tested my water for the first time it tested with no Ammo or Nitrites at all! So now I will patiently test the water every day for a week before adding any more fish this time!

Thanks to everyone for their assistance!
David

 

[jcolon]

Sounds like your good to go so far!

 

[aqua_chem]

The doubling time of bacteria dictates how fast they can grow and (re)populate, so while it might take weeks to go from a handful of bacteria to a full biofilter (consisting of billions or more bacteria), repopulating a decimated population could take hours. If I recall correctly, our BB have doubling times of around 12-18h (depending on species), meaning that even if you managed to kill 90% of your bacteria, it will only take around 2 days to completely recover. 99% destruction takes 4 days.