Beneficial Bacteria Survival?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
ShanerBock888

ShanerBock888

Aimara
MFK Member
Apr 9, 2016
949
1,111
129
Warwick, NY
About 6 days ago I took down a 55 gal tank that had been up and running for about 2-3 years steady. I moved all fish, removed all equipment and decor, and most water. The only thing still in the tank is the gravel and 6" of water, and it's been sitting like this for 6 days in a room that's probably about 60 degrees.

Now, I'm about to start cycling another tank, and am wondering if it's even worth trying to use the gravel to seed the biofilter. Obviously, I've used things like this to seed in the past, but I've never used something that's been sitting for so long. So I guess my question is how long does BB survive without aeration, heat, and/or fish waste to feed it?
 
Yeah while they may die over time, they can go dormant for short periods (days to weeks). You should be fine. If you know the smell of beneficial bacteria then grab some gravel and smell it. If it smells strongly of sulfur then it may have become anoxic.

You should be fine though, and I really doubt it would hurt anything even if the BB was dead.
 
Pomatomus said:
Yeah while they may die over time, they can go dormant for short periods (days to weeks). You should be fine. If you know the smell of beneficial bacteria then grab some gravel and smell it. If it smells strongly of sulfur then it may have become anoxic.

You should be fine though, and I really doubt it would hurt anything even if the BB was dead.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think I would recognize the smell, I'll give it a sniff. And I guess it couldn't hurt, even if it doesn't accomplish anything. Thanks!
 
Dont think temp would unless it was extreame (freezing/ boiling). b bacteria grows on things that are fully submerged like gravel so I would imagine it would be fine. I am sure some of those that get realy into the science of such things like RD could give you a better response. But i feel as long as its stayed wet and has a food source your probly fine.
 
A media bag of that gravel should definitely help speed up a nitrogen cycle in a new tank. Like said, some of the BB might have died off from the lack of water movement, but there should still be plenty of it there. Question though, why didn't you just transfer the filtration from the 55g to the new thank? You'd be off and running 100% that being the case. Most of the BB that does the work for you resides in the bio portion of your filter due to the water movement there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Drstrangelove
If the room temp was 60 F, then that's a good thing as it lowered the BB metabolism. Keeping the gravel submerged was good as well. (The rest of course was not so good.) Anything that dried out is basically useless. BB do not create spores and have no adequate mechanism (as some bacteria) to withstand desiccation.

I'd carefully scoop up just the top 1/2 inch or so of the gravel and use FreshyFresh's suggestion. (Place the bag in the filter if possible.) It can't hurt your effort and it might help the tank startup faster.
 
FreshyFresh said:
A media bag of that gravel should definitely help speed up a nitrogen cycle in a new tank. Like said, some of the BB might have died off from the lack of water movement, but there should still be plenty of it there. Question though, why didn't you just transfer the filtration from the 55g to the new thank? You'd be off and running 100% that being the case. Most of the BB that does the work for you resides in the bio portion of your filter due to the water movement there.
Click to expand...
The filter media did go directly into the filter of the fish's new 125. That 125 was off and running immediately and in the 6 days since all water tests have been at perfect level. I didn't move the gravel over because gravel is a pain in the ass, as it collects detritus and once saturated ends up leaching nitrates back into the water column, so the new 125 has sand instead. The new cycling tank in question is a 300 gallon, and I would have loved to put the gravel from the 55 right in the sump, but as you can see there are a lot of moving parts at the moment and the 300 wasn't ready to be set up yet. Now that it's set up, I have moved in other established filter media, but since it's such a big tank and will house large catfish that create such a large bioload, I expect there to be a bit of a lag, thus the need to use the gravel from the 55 in hopes that it will bridge the gap.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom