HI....DOES AND ONE KNOW WITH CERTAINTY HOW LONG YOU CAN SHUT OFF A CANISTER FILTER(KEEPING THE WATER INSIDE OF IT) before the benefital bacteria dies???
HOW LONG CAN CANISTER FILTERS STAY OFF?
- Thread starter terrors r us
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I wouldn't leave them off for more than 24 hours. There is enough debris in there to keep the bacteria fed but they consume all the oxygen in the canister and create an anaerobic environment. With oxygen, the bacteria produce a lot of nasty by products such as hydrogen sulfide which smells awful. I once had to clean out a canister that had been off for 2 days and the smell when I dumped the water was horrendous. So you obviously don't want that getting flushed back into the tank.
If you have to leave it off for longer than 12-24 hours before turning it back on, give it a good rinse.
If you have to leave it off for longer than 12-24 hours before turning it back on, give it a good rinse.
If it were me, I would use the down time to clean the filter.
Given the right conditions, a can can go toxic in as short a time as an hour.
Not saying you would have any problems, but why take the chance?
My friend whenever his filter is off for an extended amount of time he back flushes it with water from the tank.
Howdy,
A fellow member reported a while back:
The time to failure of your beneficial bacteria and onset of anaerobic decomposition depends on how long it takes for oxygen levels to drop below the threshold. That in turn depends on factors such as
(Elements of Physical Chemistry By Peter Atkins, Julio de Paula)
12-24 h as speculated above is NOT realistic.
HarleyK
A fellow member reported a while back:
blackghostuk said:
The time to failure of your beneficial bacteria and onset of anaerobic decomposition depends on how long it takes for oxygen levels to drop below the threshold. That in turn depends on factors such as
(Elements of Physical Chemistry By Peter Atkins, Julio de Paula)
- oxygen levels in your tank at time of power outage - generally 8-14 mg/L (in turn depend on aeration, temperature, fish, plants,...)
- bioload in your filter (the more material for bacteria to decompose, the faster they use up the oxygen trapped in your canister, also related to:
- colony size of aerobic (beneficial) bacteria, the heavier populated, the faster oxygen is used
12-24 h as speculated above is NOT realistic.
HarleyK
+1 This happened to me and totally wiped out my tank. Had just gotten a used canister filter, and I cleaned out everything but forgot the impeller area. Just a tiny amount of water had been trapped in there with some gunk, and when I started it up some brown sludge looking stuff went into the tank and 6 hours later everything in that tank was dead. I've had a canister filter off for an hour before, but longer than that and I would get a little nervous.
same thing happened to me with a 404... ONE HOUR... power came back on, saved the fish..... barely.. became a toxic pool and in 30 minutes everything in the tank was losing coordination and breathing HARD. I got lucky.... if in doubt, rinse it out....
Thanks for all the replies!!!
My main concern is that when I backwash my polybead filter, I have to shut my sump off to do this(it stays full of water during this time)....
The backwash uses water from the tank and when I'm done I have to add new water(about 25%)...this all takes about 1 to 2 hours....then I can turn my sump on again..
Now, since my polybead sealed canister filter is clean then it has no beneficial bacteria in it so until it matures then I have to depend on the sump bacteria to keep the tank healthy.....that is if the bacteria in the sump is still alive?
When I do the opposite(clean my sump but not the canister) then I'm not too worried because my canister can keep running the entire time....
In conclusion I guess I have to add the proper amount of "Prime" and "Purigen Instant bacteria"...
My main concern is that when I backwash my polybead filter, I have to shut my sump off to do this(it stays full of water during this time)....
The backwash uses water from the tank and when I'm done I have to add new water(about 25%)...this all takes about 1 to 2 hours....then I can turn my sump on again..
Now, since my polybead sealed canister filter is clean then it has no beneficial bacteria in it so until it matures then I have to depend on the sump bacteria to keep the tank healthy.....that is if the bacteria in the sump is still alive?
When I do the opposite(clean my sump but not the canister) then I'm not too worried because my canister can keep running the entire time....
In conclusion I guess I have to add the proper amount of "Prime" and "Purigen Instant bacteria"...
Really interesting discussion ! From personal experience of over 3 decades of maintaining canister filters I myself have never had a problem with the typical 1-3 hours downtime typically associated with tank maintainance of various sorts. In fact its quite surprising to me that some of you have had canisters go nasty in such short times, but obviously it can and does happen in some particular circumstances. I will add that I don't let my filters go massive times between cleaning. Something like 2-3 months.
On a different note entirely, I remember reading on another forum about a guy who did quite a decent scientific test on a canister that had been switched off for something like 12 weeks and just left there in his garage. He then tried to see how much, if any, of the BB was left by using that filter to cycle a brand new tank using an ammonia solution. He got that new tank fully cycled in about 2-3 days I think. Showing that a huge number of BB had in fact survived the extended time with no circulation, as the normal time to fully cycle a tank with a virgin filter would be somewhere around 4 weeks.
I wish we had more decent empirical evidence about all this stuff. Interesting nonetheless !
On a different note entirely, I remember reading on another forum about a guy who did quite a decent scientific test on a canister that had been switched off for something like 12 weeks and just left there in his garage. He then tried to see how much, if any, of the BB was left by using that filter to cycle a brand new tank using an ammonia solution. He got that new tank fully cycled in about 2-3 days I think. Showing that a huge number of BB had in fact survived the extended time with no circulation, as the normal time to fully cycle a tank with a virgin filter would be somewhere around 4 weeks.
I wish we had more decent empirical evidence about all this stuff. Interesting nonetheless !