Hi all,
and tank was left for 3 days odd without power. Tank temp dropped to 18'C. Once power was restored all OK.
I've done the same, but it depends upon the amount of biofilm in the canister, and particularly its oxygen demand.
My suggestion is to just tip the water out of the filter (you can leave a very small amount in the bottom), disconnect the hoses and make sure the taps are open (so that air can flow in and out of the canister).
Can you not transfer your media or part to a smaller filter,internal,box?just to keep it going?
I've done this as well, in fact you can just put it in the tank if you haven't got a filter.
have read somewhere I think about rinsing the media in tank water slightly placing in airtight plastic bag and keeping in darkness makes it keep retaining bacteria longer than the thought of 6 hours and then degrades
Darkness is good, air tight isn't, and yes six hours is a myth.
PFK has discussed this before
The PFK article was linked in <"
How long can a filter survive...">, but I can't find it at PFK now.
You just have to keep the filter bacteria (and filter archaea) damp and oxygenated. They can then stay in a "resting" state for a considerable time period, I don't know how long, but months would be my suspicion.
Oxygen is the thing that matters, not ammonia, the microbial assemblage will change over time without ammonia addition, but it will quickly respond to the renewed availability of ammonia once the filter is up and running.
A resource like fixed nitrogen is always likely to be patchy in terms of its availability in natural ecosystems, it doesn't make any evolutionairy sense for organisms to require a constant flow, it is always going to be "boom and bust".
cheers Darrel
