Question...power outage

[shari2]

thanks Ernesto.

How long will bacteria survive in a filter with no flow? I have both canister and HOB filters and our power was out for 24 hours. I did change water in 5 tanks about every 8 hours and spashed it really well. But my concern is what may have happened in the filters and am I looking at all tanks cycling over again?

I don't think I could deal with it.

[Emma Turner]

How long will bacteria survive in a filter with no flow?

Unfortunately, not very long. I would say that anything longer than about an hour will cause a problem, as the bacteria will have been deprived of oxygen for too long.

I have both canister and HOB filters and our power was out for 24 hours. I did change water in 5 tanks about every 8 hours and spashed it really well. But my concern is what may have happened in the filters and am I looking at all tanks cycling over again?

I don't think I could deal with it.

The effects of the power cut may not be immediately apparent, but will become so after a few days. Make sure you have plenty of test kits to hand, and possibly some Ammo-lock or something similar. I also wouldn't advise feeding the fish whilst all this is going on, as it will just add to the problem.

Good luck with this, Shari. What a rotten time for it to happen, just as you were trying to get all your tanks sorted.

Emma

[mikev]

Very sorry to hear this...a whole cluster of problems.

Every case is different, but the bacteria almost certainly not dead, only dormant. Spikes are quite possible and you should watch ammonia/nitrites, but your tank is not uncycled.

In many established tanks, most of the bacteria is not in filters anyway.

(Recent experiment here: I used sand from a healthy tank to start a new one. The sand was kept wet in a plastic bag for several days (meaning: wet, but the bacteria had no O2 or food). New tank fully cycled in 24 hours.)



How is the fish?

[Martin Thoene]

Don't panic. Remember that there's millions of bacteria all over your tank, not just in the filter......which is toast by the way.

HOBs might be OK because they're not sealed, but a cannister.....

Let's just put it this way. Because there was a power-cut here while I was away, Momfish disconnected a Fluval she couldn't get to restart. When I opened it, it was beyond whiffy

I just cleaned it out meticulously with chlorinated tapwater, reassembled, fired it up and no problemo.

In the event of a power cut, the best thing one can do with a cannister is take it offline and open the lid. At least then there can be some oxygen exchange, though it's doubtful that deep inside will get much benefit.

During the mega East-coast outage a couple of Summers back, we had no problems on restart after over 48 hours. I just cleaned out the filters as normal after leaving lids off. As normal for me means under the tap. I personally believe that all this stuff about rinsing in old tank water has only so much merit. I'm more concerned about getting rid of filtered out solids. It's worked for 40+ years, so..............

There are certain supposed golden rules in fishkeeping. I probably break a good number of them on occasion without any disasters. Rebel rebel.

Chill, but do check the levels just to keep an angle on what's going on.

Martin.

[The Kapenta Kid]

Mikev, that an interesting experiment. It's about what I would expect to happen--bacterial life or dormancy being sustained for a few days provided the host medium, gravel or filter material, is kept wet. But it is good to see it has been put to the test. I suppose there is enough residual O2 and nitrogenous food in the remaining water to keep them ticking over for a while.

[mikev]

Mikev, that an interesting experiment. It's about what I would expect to happen--bacterial life or dormancy being sustained for a few days provided the host medium, gravel or filter material, is kept wet. But it is good to see it has been put to the test. I suppose there is enough residual O2 and nitrogenous food in the remaining water to keep them ticking over for a while.

Actually, there was no water there, but the bag was sealed, so the sand remained wet.

The experiment was unintentional: I got a few bags of "live" sand to set up a 29, had one bag left, and a few days later (I think four) needed a 10g. So I put this bag in, and put ammonia at 2.0. New filter, new powerhead. Nothing else. Next morning: 0 amm, 0 nitrites, and almost no nitrates even since cycling was so fast. Was quite a nice surprise, I did not expect it to work so well...

[The Kapenta Kid]

Yep, by residual water I just meant the moisture that would be present in the inter-grain interstices in a sealed bag of damp gravel.

[Alphawave0101]

Hello,
I live in south florida and have been trough a few hurricanes which have left my electiricty (and my tank) without power. I have a 40g tank that went almost 3 weeks last year without power or even a battery operated air stone. I didn't lose a single fish...I did have problems with pH for a long time after that however. What I did to prevent damage was circulate water by pouring tank water back into the tank with a cup. I also added bacteria starter after a few days and made sure to constantly check the levels. My fish wouldn't eat flakes the 2 times I tried to feed them. They pretty much didn't eat the entire time. Anyway, that's been my experience...hope it helps.
-Joy

[shari2]

Well, I did a last water change before I left for work at 7pm. By the time I got back at 11:30pm (the filter was running again) the clowns in the 55 were hanging at the top of the tank, slurping air. so I took out another 15 gallons and only put back about 5. Dechlor, stress zyme and some bacter vital in the return water. Return is splashing heavily. Plants are looking better and the diatoms are fading away, but sh*t!

I guess I'll take apart the filter tomorrow, since it is probably a goner. What lousy timing for this to happen! WAY too much else to do to have to spend so much time on fish tanks...

They say bad things happen in 3's. I've got my three.
!. Pleco with panaque plaque
2. Power outage and struggling tanks
3. Son who crashed my Suburban into a West Virginia mountain.

That should do it for me, I guess. Gotta get better from here.

[Jim Powers]

Lets hope it gets better from here. You HAVE had a bad week.
Hang in there!!