how long established aquarium without fish

[duanes]

If your tap water is treated with Chloramine, doing water changes with the Chloraminated water even without fish in the tank, may be enough to keep bacteria alive..
When I worked at a water treatment facility, we did experiments on the distribution system, finding ammonia consumers living as biofilm on the pipes (no fish in the pipes obviously).
As long as you don't cram the tank tank with tons of new fish all at once, or large ammonia factory size fish, your bacterial colony should be able to handle it.

 

[skjl47]

1 week without fish

Hello; This is a guess but the bb may still be present in some reduced numbers. If you overfed as most of us do then in a week some decay of excess food should have occurred releasing some ammonia in the decay process. The bb themselves that died off will have added to such decay. I have read that the bb do to some degree go dormant for a time and so may be able to be revived.

If your tap water is treated with Chloramine, doing water changes with the Chloraminated water even without fish in the tank, may be enough to keep bacteria alive..

Hello; I think I slightly understand this and it is a very good point. I have been following threads about chloramine water treatment. If I understand correctly there is ammonia in the chloramine in a state that the bb can use as "food".

Hello; If you are among the clever folks who keep snails in tank s then the remaining snails will produce ammonia from their metabolic process.

hello; I also agree that you should add new fish slowly to allow the bb that may remain time to build back up. However from your posts I gather you expect a group of fry all at one time. You do have an ace in the hole so to speak in that you have another established tank. Yes you can rob some solid surface from that tank to get some bb into the tank in question.

My guess is you do not nesessairly have to tear down the tank and start over. You should, as others have suggested, throw some fish food to rot into the tank while waiting for the new fish to arrive. Just do not throw in too much and sour the tank.
There is more to say but that is enough for now except that you should read the links I posted a bit back.

 

[Gourami Swami]

I would be surprised if all the BB in a 5 year old tank died in 1 week. I bet you still have a population. As suggested, I would just add an ammonia source in the mean-time, like some tetras or something like that, to keep the tank running until your new fish arrive. That would be the easiest thing to do. You can test if your cycle is indeed alive by dosing a little ammonia and seeing if it has been depleted in 24hrs

Also, if you wanted, you could clean everything out and then put the cycled fx6 on the tank when your new fish come, to avoid having to re-cycle.

 

[shorjai]

I would be surprised if all the BB in a 5 year old tank died in 1 week. I bet you still have a population. As suggested, I would just add an ammonia source in the mean-time, like some tetras or something like that, to keep the tank running until your new fish arrive. That would be the easiest thing to do. You can test if your cycle is indeed alive by dosing a little ammonia and seeing if it has been depleted in 24hrs

Also, if you wanted, you could clean everything out and then put the cycled fx6 on the tank when your new fish come, to avoid having to re-cycle.

That is my best bet. I will move my existing cycled fx6 from another tank and plug and play.. that should not cause any recycle. fingers cross

 

[skjl47]

That is my best bet. I will move my existing cycled fx6 from another tank and plug and play.. that should not cause any recycle. fingers cross

Hello; Wait to move the fx6 until the new fish have arrived then move it the same day.
Good luck

 

[FESHMAN]

I think that 1 week isn't enough to kill all the nitrifiers, given that the filtration is still running.
As some of the folks said, you can keep them alive and even bounce them back up by providing a source of ammonia, let that be a liquid solution or food or whatever. just test for ammonia and nitrates to be sure that everything is going well and there are no spikes.

 

[fishhead0103666]

I was wrong then, the bacteria takes longer than I thought to die.

 

[shorjai]

BUMP... I just tested my water parameter after two weeks with no fish.. without fish good B.B. will die off but why my test all came out perfect..

Please advise before I add fish tomrrow..

 

[Galantspeedz]

BUMP... I just tested my water parameter after two weeks with no fish.. without fish good B.B. will die off but why my test all came out perfect..

Please advise before I add fish tomrrow..

View attachment 1345888

I don't think you will die of hunger immediately

You can starve yourself without food but only water and see how long you last... lol

 

[skjl47]

BUMP... I just tested my water parameter after two weeks with no fish.. without fish good B.B. will die off but why my test all came out perfect..

Please advise before I add fish tomrrow..

View attachment 1345888

Hello; This may be wrong thinking and is based on a tank being empty. An empty tank is just a container of water. No fish to make ammonia so no conversion of the ammonia to nitrite and no conversion of nitrite to nitrate.

Another thought, I assume you have not followed the advice of several of us about how to keep the bb alive with fish food or some such. If however you have been doing as suggested then the bb are likely still alive and converting the ammonia and nitrite. It may be at such a low level that not much nitrate is being produced.


Hello; Either way when the new fish come in you probably will have an ammonia spike. Again I suggest the following.

I will move my existing cycled fx6 from another tank and plug and play..

Hello; Wait to move the fx6 until the new fish have arrived then move it the same day.
Good luck