How long can Beneficial bacteria live out of water?

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

tcarswell

Polypterus
MFK Member
Dec 6, 2008
6,677
12
92
39
Tibet
I was listening to my headphones and working on my lil 15 gallon community tank and I didnt notice I had shut off the HOB aquatech filter. It emptied its water and was dry for maybe 30 minutes.The bio media was in there and dry Did I kill my beneficial bacteria?? im concerned as this tank just recently seemed to finish cycling:irked:
 
:( weak one little screw up and bam BB gets screwed
 
Monitor your water parameters. What are your water parameters right now? If the filter media is already dried, chances are you destroyed some bacteria but most bacteria will still colonize in the substrate so there's still hope.
 
I did a 75% water change today so I am not too sure if running the parameters would help quite yet. I filled the tank back up like 2 hours ago :( Will it tell me tommorow if I run my parameters? The tank is heavily stocked with community fish .
 
I doubt your BB all died in 30 minutes. Even with the filter running "dry" your media would have still stayed wet.
 
Knowdafish;2595271; said:
I doubt your BB all died in 30 minutes. Even with the filter running "dry" your media would have still stayed wet.
Click to expand...
:) there is a glimmer of hope , Thanks bro :)
 
Knowdafish;2595271; said:
I doubt your BB all died in 30 minutes. Even with the filter running "dry" your media would have still stayed wet.
Click to expand...

i second what he said :)

ive left my bio-media out for around half an hour on several occasions with no ill effects, maybe even longer. when i was keeping rays, i would check parameters 2x daily since i was so paranoid at first with them, and never saw a spike in ammonia or anything when doing this.

i wouldent lose sleep over it. chances are pretty darn good in my opinion your fine.
 
well as long as the surface was wet it should be okay. but, if it was bone dry then id say you killed it. when rearranging tanks, ive taken out big rocks for an hour or so-but i keep them wet, and ive never had any problems with mini cycles.
 
shouldn't be a problem but you shouldn't need to be doing 75% w/c that's too much in one go. do more frequent smaller water changes :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom