water change question

[903Herp]

Basically for the past 3 years of my tank keeping I have been doing water changes the same way. I age tap water (for my small tanks) or use the hose with tap water conditioner for my large tank. When I do this I kill the filtration and put my media in a bucket with an air stone. My question is this. How long without circulation will the bacteria in my fx6's stay alive during a water change? Is it necessary to unhook the filters and go through this major hassle or can I just turn them off and do my water change and be good? Side bit of information, I also run a large sponge filter internally in the tank.

 

[Aquanero]

I just turn them off do the water changes and turn back on when done. If the filter was going to be off for more than a few hours I'd pull it otherwise it's fine.

 

[Drstrangelove]

Same. I've never done anything such as aging water or removing media. Never had a problem.

As for how long they live, they can be "chilled" down to the low 50's upper 40's which will extend their lifespan considerably as they basically go into hibernation at low temps. There are other more exotic ways to extend lifespan, but at room temp, they should survive for a long time.

E.g., I had a 75 and a 55 gallon tank lose power for several days and when they re-started I had no issues with mini or full recycle events despite doing nothing else: no water changes, no air pumps, no commercial bacteria, etc.

Now I had very under stocked tanks, so I would not recommend that with a fully stocked or over stocked tank, but that was my experience.

 

[duanes]

I never turn off anything while doing water changes, I take the water level down to just above the pump intake in my sumps (they are normally almost full) and add new water, and sodium thiosulfate to the sump until full.
In this way I can do @ 30% water changes every other day (every day in summer).
At the same time, I pull ot bags of bio-media swish them around in a bucket of the older water to remove excess debris, and drop them back in the sump.

 

[903Herp]

Ok cool. Just wanted to make sure. I dont have a sump sadly. At the moment. I want to build one out of a 125 just havent had the opportunity yet.