Bacteria lifespan, need answers ASAP!

divemaster99

divemaster99

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Just took all the fry from my 20 tall and put them in a breeder net in my 75 until I can get them to my LFS within a few days. I'm going to out my Greenside darters in the 20 tall which I'm making a riffle tank. I'd prefer to wait until scaped the tank before putting the darters in to avoid stress but I still need to get rocks and substrate from my local creek and wash it all before I can start to scape. Which is fine with me but I don't know how long the tank will stay cycled without an ammonia source in it and I don't want to have to recycle it. So how long will the bacteria live with no fish? There is still some waste floating around but I don't know of that'll help keep it cycled.
 
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deeda

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If you are planning on keeping the existing mature filter running on the tank, you should be fine. Or move the filter over to the 75G tank for the duration.

Darters are sensitive to water conditions so definitely test the 'new' setup prior to adding them to the tank and make sure it is fully cycled.
 
divemaster99

divemaster99

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deeda said:
If you are planning on keeping the existing mature filter running on the tank, you should be fine. Or move the filter over to the 75G tank for the duration.

Darters are sensitive to water conditions so definitely test the 'new' setup prior to adding them to the tank and make sure it is fully cycled.
Click to expand...
Its been well cycled for about 3 months now and has a very mature filter so I'm thinking it'll be fine, plus I just did a 50% change now. PS, I forgot to mention that there's 4 trapdoor snails still I'm the tank but I'm not sure how well they'll contribute to keeping it cycled.
 
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ss720

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I used a bottle of ammonia as used for cleaning to cycle my tank.

Make sure it's the soap free kind, it feeds the beneficial bacteria like nothing else.

It's better to have too many BB and some of them die when fish is added, than to have too few BB when adding fish and let them grow.

Just make sure you do ammonia, no2 and no3 readings before adding fish.



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divemaster99

divemaster99

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Alright well I already have the gravel in the tank and I'm washing the decor in my sink now. The tank was pure mud when I added the gravel so I did a 50% and that helped a little bit. I added 4 adult trapdoor snails in as a waste source and I'll be adding the darters whenever the tank clears up (hopefully by tomorrow). So do you think the bacteria will survive until tomorrow night since I ahave snails in the tank?
 
Oddball

Oddball

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Aerobic heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria will live so long as the tank is aerated. If it's going to be days between removal and addition of fish to maintain a bioload, the addition of several drops of house-hold ammonia will serve to feed the bacteria culture (as stated above).

If the tank is aerated, but not fed, for longer periods several things will happen to the culture. Some of the population will encyst (hibernate) until conditions improve (nutrients available). Some of the population will die off resulting in ammonia becoming available from their deterioration. And, some of the culture will slow their metabolism and feed off the ammonia from the dead bacteria but, not reproduce new bacteria cells until conditions improve.
 
divemaster99

divemaster99

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Jan 10, 2014
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Pittsburgh, PA
Oddball said:
Aerobic heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria will live so long as the tank is aerated. If it's going to be days between removal and addition of fish to maintain a bioload, the addition of several drops of house-hold ammonia will serve to feed the bacteria culture (as stated above).

If the tank is aerated, but not fed, for longer periods several things will happen to the culture. Some of the population will encyst (hibernate) until conditions improve (nutrients available). Some of the population will die off resulting in ammonia becoming available from their deterioration. And, some of the culture will slow their metabolism and feed off the ammonia from the dead bacteria but, not reproduce new bacteria cells until conditions improve.
Click to expand...
Thanks oddball, good to know. I'm hoping to have the fish in by tomorrow but the latest will be two days so I'm going to assume the bacteria will survive.
 
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