Sharing - Keeping bacteria alive while changing water

[John]

Hello all

for those of you with larger tanks and are running them with sumps, you will know that each time we do WC , we need to switch off the pumps so that the sumps will not dry up as we drain the water.

THe whole water change procedure can take easily 30 mins onwards (mine is abt 45min for a 60% change)

For this time, the water in the sump is left standing and there is no water flow.
In a normal situation, water from the tank gets oxygenated thru surface turbulence , air pumps etc. Fish use up some of the oxygen, and the remaining goes into the sump. After passing thru the various compartments, the water is now depleted of oxygen because of the nitrifying process , and it gets pumped back to the tank.

Throughout this time, i always worried about beneficial bacteria in the sump dying off, esp the oxygen hungry nitrifying bacteria.

So what i did was to use a powerhead , place it at last compartment, and pump the water back to the first compartment. THis creates a closed loop flow in the sump itself. It is good to use an airpump for the various compartments of the sump.

I did it for the last few water changes and was happy that a $25 powerhead can do this job perfectly and i dont have to worry abt losing my "hard earned " bacteria .

If your medias are mature, not a problem at all.

[marshy]

Just have a airstone in each compartment.

[John]

spotted, how long can they survive ?

couldnt find a conclusive answer so far.

i thought if the sump is matured it will be jam packed with bacteria and once oxygen is cut more will die ? thats why the more matured it is the more i worry . if no bacteria nothing to lose !

[tco]

I dun think bb will die so easily, I been doing wc with pump off for 30 to 45 mins without prob...if u worries, get a canister to draw water from last compartment to first compartment... 1 stone 2 birds, better filtration.

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[Fins&Tails]

Actually shouldn't worry too much for sump n canister as even ohf can withstand 1-2hrs without water n running fine with heavy feeding after that

[AlvinLeong]

The BB is much much more tougher than that. 30 mins is nothing. For a couple of hours, just drop an airstone in the return compartment.

As long as you do not dry the filter media out completely, or expose them to atmospheric extremes (like direct sunlight), the BB will survive.

I had my sump just sitting there for a whole day while I changed the substrate in my tank. No adverse effects observed.

i have never heard of BB dead during WC.

true that there is no conclusive answer. but the general concession is if your tank is truely matured and properly cycled, the dead of BB is the least you should concern

[amiidae]

Originally Posted by John

spotted, how long can they survive ?

couldnt find a conclusive answer so far.

i thought if the sump is matured it will be jam packed with bacteria and once oxygen is cut more will die ? thats why the more matured it is the more i worry . if no bacteria nothing to lose !

Happy reading.

Link to the sci paper -- > Bacteria coping with nutrient and oxygen fluctuations