How long will bacteria live in a unplugged Canister filter?

[spas]

Hello,

I will be tearing down my 265 to change out the 3d-background and need to silicone the new one in place and let it dry for 24 hours.

I have two eheim 2262's that I will need to unplug and leave as is for the duration of the rebuild. Will the beneficial bacterial survive for 24-30 hours in a filter not running?

Unfortunately I will not be able to move these to my backup tank that will hold the fish while the silicone is drying as I need to plumb in the intakes and outputs into the background.

Any help would greatly be appreciated

Thanks,
Steve

 

[RLHam3]

Make sure to open the canisters so that your aerobic bacteria can breathe. I have done this before without issue. Just keep the filter media wet and you shouldn't have too bad of a kickback.

Maybe a mini cycle at most.

 

[freelanderuk]

I had my 2262 and 2080 filters turned of and removed from the tank for 36 hours when I did a rebuild ,when I reconnected there was a slight bacterial bloom which I did partial water changes for 4 days an all was ok

 

[smitty03281964]

Good topic. I have heard that is does not die right away but I never got an answer for how long it can survive

 

[jwh]

I would open the can as suggested, and add a airstone to keep the water and oxygen moving. The longest I have gone was 16 hours during a power failure, didn't touch the cans, no ill effects

 

[monkeybike]

Hook them onto a bucket or rubber maid tub full of tank water and run them. Leave the intakes on the tank, just stick the hoses into the bucket.

 

[justarn]

I would run em on whatever your keeping the fish in??

 

[spas]

Thanks for the input guys....

I can't really move them to another tank since I have them hard plumbed into my big tank. I could try and disconnect the double taps and add new temp hoses to a smaller tank and see if I can get that connected....

If not, I will leave them as is and when I fire the system back up I will overdose with a bottle of stability....

 

[xraycer]

I would take off the lid and run an air stone; keep the water warm as well

 

[FreshyFresh]

Like said, keep the filters running in what ever container you're keeping your fish in. At a very least, I'd keep those canisters running in a container of tank water. I wouldn't risk them going anaerobic, which is anyone's guess at how long that would tank. Too many factors to hazard a guess.