How long can a canister be turned off?

[Muzz]

As the title suggests I will be turning off my FX5 for around 24hrs to refurbish my tank, including painting the rear wall.

Question is; will the bacteria in the filter survive this long without water flow?

Cheers,

Muzz

[Muzz]

I forgot to add that I don't have any spare buckets.

[Richard_]

Nope

You'll open the filter in 24 hours and its gonna stink like old bum

To keep bacteria alive it needs water and oxygen every few hours at least. You won't kill it during a service so 60 minutes seems okay but any longer without oxygenated water flow is bad news for good bacteria

Can you run it in your bath for 24 hours? It'll save the whole "new tank cycle"

Or put the media in a heated bucket with aeration for 24 hours, keep it alive like you would a fish in a bucket

A six foot tank but you have no buckets???? really?????

[bluebelle]

Bathroom sink - kitchen sink, any big container! Go and buy some buckets!

[bidkev]

I've had mine off for 24 hrs no problem. I just removed the lid and ran an airstone in it.

[Richard_]

When you take bidkevs advice, it should work fine as the media is accessing oxygen and there's your bucket!

Great tip bidkev!!!

[Donny@ageofaquariums]

I would also give it a clean a few days before you need to turn it off.

Make sure you use aquarium water as usual.

Anyway the less rotting organics in the cannister the less oxygen it needs.

You also prune the bacteria colony back a bit, to reduce the oxygen demand of the colony.

By freeing the pores of the sponge, you encourage even water flow when you add an airstone.

[thatsright99]

Well without preparation that should've been thought about, if you were to give the canister a shake to loosen up the muck and tip all the water out then wash again with tankwater and empty again, you could leave the media* in the canister with no water and put the lid loosly on top. This would stop much media drying out and keep the bact alive. If sponge, a container with small anonymous of water to keep it moist would suffice.

How do you do water changes anyway. Go to bunnings/mitre 10 and get some 9lt buckets, $2 each. It's really quite simple and no ones else fault if you have no forethought.

[The Tech Den]

I would love to see someone that has a Seneye or similar put the sensor in a canister for 24hrs that has been switched off and see the graph results for Ammonia. The other interesting point would be the levels that it would return Ammonia back into the system.

[Muzz]

Thanks for the feedback. Bidkev thats a great idea thinking outside of the box, cheers for that. Ventus I sold the six footer last weekend and as far as water changes go I run a hose from the tank to the backyard and to refill I run it directly from the tap through a filter.

[~Craig~]

Just leave it on and film the back of the tank with vinyl, or I could do it for a small fee

[keeper10]

i do it with an airstone in it best way