Bacteria died

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

I just noticed my hob filter was off, it was probably off for 24 hours how long does it take for bacteria to die when exposed to air? And how long does it take to grow back? Because I’m moving in 2 weeks and I’ll need that bacteria for the life support after the move. The good thing is I have fast growing plants like elodea so the fish were fine. But I was also wondering will the bacteria grow if I have fast growing plants sucking up nutrients?

[Odd Duck]

Your bacteria should survive for at least 8 hours or so, especially in an HOB filter that still gets air circulation. 

[Wrencher_Scott]

Yes, they are very resilient creatures, I wouldn't worry too much. 

[lefty o]

at 24hrs, id dump it out, and give a quick rinse.  as long as the tank itself has good bacteria in it, wont take but a couple days to recolonize the filter.

[Brandon p]

I have some health issues and there are times that I am in the hospital for a few days. In sough I rains and storms everyday and the power will often go out. Side note I’m not sure why they don’  be t put the the power underground other that the lighting knocks out the the transformers. Sorry. Back to the point my filters other than the sponge filters stop. I have several hob one tanks as well mostly for flow and it doesn’t away restart. I normally just restart it when I get home or ask a friend. I would not worry much. The bacteria it’s still there and there some air exposed it in most HOB’s there is some water in them in 24 hours there could be so die off but there would be almost no die off in the water it’s self. Rinsing mg it is probably a personal thing but I would go with @lefty o

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/17/2022 at 3:30 PM, Jacob Hill said:

I just noticed my hob filter was off, it was probably off for 24 hours how long does it take for bacteria to die when exposed to air?

You'd very likely have some slime start up.  If you have that happen just try to clean it manually as often as you can.  If things dry out, you're looking at the bacteria in the HoB crashing.  If it's wet, you have a few hours, but it likely died back in a major way. 

The tank itself has a much larger water volume, so the bacteria in the tank would then go ahead and repopulate the filter.  I'd clean the media and so forth in the HoB as best you can, then just keep an eye on it.  I had mine crash during power outage/QT issue (sickness) and then I didn't realize it for slightly over 24 hours.  It took me a bit to recover.  If need be, dost bacteria in a bottle to help things along.

[Brandon p]

@nabokovfan87 I hope we can is agree one this one thing because we are normally on the same page, but 24 is nothing. He has substrate that t there bacteria growing ing there are plants growing. I think that people are way to worried about losing power for a day or two. Good tanks often have way more filtration than needed and the natural eco system in most tanks allow tanks to survive and do well with dilution for many days. @Jacob Hill I’m not sure how big your aquarium is or your stocking levels. There is plenty of good bacteria growing on everything in the tank. You will be fine once you get he filter going again you will be ok. You have plants that will help. Now since I don’t know t your stock there are some fish that at more sensitive. I think many of us worry to much and are tank are stronger that we think. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/17/2022 at 10:23 PM, Brandon p said:

There is plenty of good bacteria growing on everything in the tank. You will be fine once you get he filter going again you will be ok.

100% agreed!  The tank itself will likely re-supply the HoB with bacteria and the media and what not will likely be repopulated shortly without interruption.  If the media in the HoB dried out. It's likely dead. If the media in the HoB stayed wet, but it was a very small amount of water, it's very likely that the bacteria took heavy losses.  Some might've survived, but it's very likely that a lot of it crashed. Mine was out for just over ~30 hours before I noticed. Maybe longer, it was definitely a stressful time.  But, all I was saying is that the HoB is considerably less volume of water compared to the tank itself. The bacteria in the tank, likely fine. The bacteria in the filter.... not too sure.

Here's a good video to toss in here for conversation sake.
 

 

I found this, a reply to a similar post on another forum with some cool ideas to keep the tank going.  Different situation, but useful if someone is stuck and needs some help.

 

Quote

the aerobic bacteria will start to die within 30 minutes if there is no oxygenated water passing over it. If the filters are clean it will last a while longer, usually a couple of hours but there will be some die off regardless.

If you have an external canister filter you can put the return hose into a bucket and let it fill up. Then put the hose back in the tank. Pour the bucket of water back into the tank as well. Do that every 30 minutes during the power failure and the filter should be fine.

HOB filters like the Aquaclear can be kept alive by adding a couple of litres of water to them every half hour. Simply use a jug or icecream bucket and scoop some tank water out and pour it into the filter.

Air operated filters can be kept alive by blowing air into the airline. You can do this yourself or use a bike pump or buy a battery operated air pump.

When the power comes back on increase the surface turbulence as much as possible. This will provide maximum oxygen saturation in the water and help the bacteria recover.
Keep the feeding down or don't feed for the next week and monitor the water quality. if you get an ammonia rise then do a 50% water change.

That method is also what I see a lot in Goliad Farms when they have their fish in buckets, adding water every so often. And more cool information tidbits below!

 

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Bacterial decay and death during prolonged resting or inactive periods occurs due to the natural onset of entropy. Aerobic bacteria may attempt to retard and prolong this tendency toward disorder through a process known as endogenous respiration, whereby a nominal energy flow is secured for limited maintenance purposes. This energy provides for resynthesis of critical metabolic material, as well as facilitating such activities as transport, motility, and pressure and heat control.

Our best estimate for the collective impacts of decay, endogenous metabolism, death, and predation on nitrifiers presently ranges from 0.05 to 0.12 days-1 . Correspondingly, these rates imply that resting, non-active nitrifiers will deteriorate at rates of 5 to 12% per day.

Quote

Nitrifiers need oxygen for normal metabolism. Every milligram of nitrogen passed through their full nitrification pathway (starting at ammonia and concluding at nitrate) requires approximately 4.5 mg of dissolved oxygen to scavenge electrons drawn from their nitrogenous substrates.

Should the available dissolved oxygen drop much below a few milligrams per liter, though, nitrifier metabolism will markedly slow down. However, even without access to any oxygen whatsoever, they can sustain some measure of respirative metabolism using nitrate or nitrite as an alternative electron acceptor (i.e. in lieu of oxygen). In short, they can, if necessary, both nitrify and denitrify, an incredible biochemical feat somewhat analogous to having their cake and eating it too.

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by nabokovfan87
Added info

[Odd Duck]

There is also some solid information that a significant percentage of the bacteria will go dormant even if dried out.  Something like 30% and possibly more.  I’ve used old, dried out sponges and even the biowheel from a Marineland filter and gotten much faster cycling than a tank with brand new filters.  It’s likely that not all of the species of bacteria will go dormant, but enough will that even old, dried sponge is possibly better than the bacteria in a bottle.  The bacteria in a bottle relies entirely on the bacteria going dormant, after all.  There’s no oxygen sustaining that bacteria, that’s for sure.

[Wrencher_Scott]

I have read they won't live dried out because they don't produce spores. 

 

[modified lung]

On 6/18/2022 at 11:40 AM, Wrencher_Scott said:

I have read they won't live dried out because they don't produce spores. 

 

Depends on the age or thickness of the biofilm and the humidity. Complete drying is supposed to be one of the few things that can kill nitrifying bacteria. Although I have the same experience with dried out K1 cycling extremely fast.

[Torrey]

We've had power out for 10 days before. As long as at least some of the filter material stayed damp, I'm confident you still have plenty of beneficial bacteria @Jacob Hill.

I have a Teta ReptiFilter that turns off with the lights, because I need higher filtration during the day time when the turtle likes to tear things up, but no longer run a heater in the turtle pond and the reptifilter would cool the water off too drastically once the lights went out. I over feed the fish and the turtle to preserve plant growth, and never have ammonia or nitrites... I do have a nitrate spike if Karma decides to eat all the vegetation, until I replant.

Feed lightly for a couple of days so bacteria can catch up. Feed lightly for 48 hours before and after your move, and run a USB pump for aeration of your filter media during your move (plus run USB pumps for your fish) and all should be fine.

If you are moving to someplace nearby, you can give your bacteria an edge by setting up a reservoir container at your new place the day before you move your fish. Dechlorinate the water in advance, and run a seeded sponge filter in there if you can. I've had filter media sitting in 5 gallon buckets for a couple of weeks at a time for various reasons, and as soon as it went in the tank it only took 48 hours to a week to return to pre-5 gallon bucket capabilities.... as long as I fed lightly and didn't crash the bacterial colonies with too much food. Just like we don't take someone who's been on a ventilator in a medical coma for a month to an all you can eat steak dinner immediately, we don't want to overwhelm the beneficial bacteria with too much food right after a move, or a power outtage.

[Wrencher_Scott]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:17 PM, modified lung said:

Depends on the age or thickness of the biofilm and the humidity. Complete drying is supposed to be one of the few things that can kill nitrifying bacteria. Although I have the same experience with dried out K1 cycling extremely fast.

Well, yes. When I saw dry I thought dry not damp or very humid. 

I know they need O2 to survive but not much I think. To thrive of course they need much more. 

I think I would worry more about any waist like poop or food decomposing in the filter while it's not running, that could produce some toxic stuff I'm sure. 

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:23 AM, Brandon p said:

@Jacob Hill I’m not sure how big your aquarium is or your stocking levels. There is plenty of good bacteria growing on everything in the tank. You will be fine once you get he filter going again you will be ok. You have plants that will help. Now since I don’t know t your stock there are some fish that at more sensitive. I think many of us worry to much and are tank are stronger that we think. 

Thanks for all the reply’s everyone it’s been very helpful, my stocking is a bunch of plants growing well and healthy and like 7 white cloud minnows in a 10 gallon. With Aquaclear 20.