yea, man. bacteria will make it if you have some kind of water movement, maybe even without water movement. Everybody here just puts matrix in a laundry bag in their sump, and bacteria live on that just fine. I don't see how your canister is much different. Just a pile of rocks in the water, bacteria like it. Maybe you could take the bio-media out, put it in a bag in the tank, put a cheap power head in the tank, too....maybe an air stone. You'll be fine.