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As many of you know I had to take all the water out of my tank due to a bad bacterial bloom or diy co2 leakage.

My tank has been setting for a few days with a little water left in the substrate. Is the bacteria still good or should I be throughly rinsing the substrate and filter.



Last edited by tetratech at 02-Sep-2005 11:09

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(finally a post relating to your tank that I understand )

I maybe paranoid, but I would just rinse and repeat and start again, especially if you still don't know happened. I thought Bacteria didn't last long without the water being circulated or moved in some way?oxygen?(I could well be wrong though)

Do you use cycle? I 'd go for that or a bit of filter media from an established tank?(which I am sure you know so I ll go now!)

GFG

Last edited by goldfishgeek at 02-Sep-2005 13:09

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if you have the fish in a good cycled tank right now, i would rinse everything and start over

I seem to remember reading that it takes a week or so for the anerobic bacteria to form, however the likelyhood of the biofilter still being alive is rather minimal. Most people say 1 hour without oxygen, although how little "no oxygen" I've never seen clarified.

I'm with the others, rinse off, although I dont' see a need to sterilize, and restart. Using cycle, biospira, or seeded material from another tank will of course help .

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Everyone's response were helpful, I'll rinse as best I can and restart with some bacteria from other tank. Thanks!

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Even if the bacteria didn't die from lack of oxygen it would all probably starve from lack of food. I doubt there's anything useful left.

tetratech

There are many good bacteria starters Sera "BioStarter" is what I use all the time. It is recommended by Sera to add it to the tank at every water change. This keeps the good and origional bacteria healthy.


Keith

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I think the co2 saturation causes the biological die off in the filter, the filter then emptied partially processed water into the tank and then decomposition continued releasing methane and other nasties thus causing further clouding, possibly even chemically dependant bacteria of other strains began colonisation.Oxygen dependant aerobic decomposition certainly isnt the only kind.Filters that function normally promote the certain kinds of bacteria we need, and to work they depend on water flow , oxygenation and surface area,when this goes to pot the principles change a bit.

Now that youve changed the water and removed the gas problem this is unlikely to reoccur but for the quickest possible recovery i would clean the dead material out of the filter, reseed it and start again, since not cleaning it would mean that it had to process a huge amount of detritus already in the filter. This would take ages and the ammonia levels would be manic. The detritus in the filter now may have some very harsh ph that bacteria may have difficulty establishing in.

Start over dude.




Last edited by longhairedgit at 03-Sep-2005 01:09

Thanks longhairedit.

Yeah, I've rinsed all and will use a bio-starter and some gravel from another tank.



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