bacteria Q

[abaigael04]

Which is the first bacteria to die? Ones that convert ammo to trItes or ones that convert trItes to trAtes? I just lost power for SIX days (thank you, Ike...) and ran my filter about 4 - 5 times a day for short periods of time (off a converter hooked up to one of our trucks). Tested the water yesterday.. 0 ammo, .1 trItes (API would test as 0 because it doesn't go below .25 I was using a red sea test kit). I did (2) 8 gal WC .. because I missed my WC on sunday (water wasn't "safe") and am trying to get caught up) . Tested BEFORE WC. Is that normal that I would have no ammo and a little trItes? Would you say I should test again today to see if I GET ammo? Or my trItes go any higher? At least it seems I didn't have a complete die off, which I am ecstatic about! :19: I am due for my regular 13 gal WC this weekend, so I will do that as usual... and test my water then, too... I don't think I will ever have more than a basic understanding of this stuff... philosophy and english and reading are more "my thing". :c2:

[doug z]

Which is the first bacteria to die? Ones that convert ammo to trItes or ones that convert trItes to trAtes?

There are different kinds of nitrifying bacteria, but I'm pretty sure they all do the same job.. They don't JUST break down ammonia, OR nitrites OR nitrates (what did you get for this reading?).

Are you doing a fishless cycle? If so, are you still adding ammonia?

Or do you have fish in your tank?

I would test before AND after your WC so you can get a better picture of where your tank is.

[abaigael04]

Oh my tank is cycled and been set up for awhile... it is just that I lost power for 6 days and so my filters were being run on a limited set amount of time... so I'm sure some bacteria died off... and I am just wondering how that works if your tank IS cycled... and when I say "water wasn't safe" I mean we lost water pressure because of the hurricane - still don't have water at all at the barn (horse). I thought they did specific jobs because everyone always says the ammonia breaks down then you have to wait until the bacteria that convert trItes to trAtes ... so.. I figured they did different "jobs"... though I guess you could be correct. still just wondering what my likely side effects of not being able to run the filters constantly for 6 days may be...
edit: and yes since this was a freak event of nature... my tank DOES have fish in it... :)

[doug z]

Well, if there are fish in there, and your filter didn't go DAYS without being turned on, you should be fine..

Curious, though, why you'd be getting nitrites.. They should be zero..

Maybe some of the bacteria in the filter DID die, and you got a bit of a spike..

You have lots of bacteria in your substrate, too, so even if you did lose the bacteria in the filter your substrate bacteria would seed the filter again once it got going..

For sure do your weekly WC's..

[terrapin24h]

i wouldn't necessarily expect a die off of bacteria. In your situation, i would think the biggest concerns are temperature drops and physical filtration of the water. You have bacteria in more places than just the filter; on the glass, plants, decor, gravel(lots in the gravel) etc. So, as long as you kept your water oxygenated(which it sounds like you did) you wouldn't have a bacteria die off. Reason being is that you had fish making ammonia, which fuels the amm-->trite which would in turn fuel trite-->trate. The only time you might get a ammonia spike would be if your temp dropped enough for the bacteria metabolisms(and therefore their appetites) to drop. Then you'd get a build up of amm followed by a build up of trite-- kind of a mini cycle effect. Keep an eye on your filter media, you might find it clogs up quick. Also, you might want to consider doing a gravel vac too. Keep an eye on your water, it could have all kinds of softeners and junk in it that could cause your ph to go wacky. I'd bet there's a good chance your ph will drop as you do more and larger water changes. Generally water cos will shove all kinds of stuff into water to kill bacteria, reduce odor and make the water soft when they first come back up or suffer line pollution(this happened to me in may and i'm *still* getting water with no buffer capacity). Glad to hear you made it

--chris

[Alfcea]

There are different kinds of nitrifying bacteria, but I'm pretty sure they all do the same job.. They don't JUST break down ammonia, OR nitrites OR nitrates (what did you get for this reading?).

Well, actually, yes. Nitrosomonas speciallize in the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite and Nitrospirae specialize in the oxidation of nitrite to nitrate. If the same bacteria could do it all, tanks would not go through a full cycle. It would only be necessary to wait for a large anough growth of the colonies and we would never see nitrites, since they would use them right away.

Abigael: I do not know which bacteria are the first ones to die away, but in general it is very hard to completely kill out all of them. If some of them survived (and I am sure many of them did), you should see the colonies growing back very quickly. If you keep the temperature a bit high, maybe in the high seventiies (F), you should help the bacteria get re-established soon.

[abaigael04]

OOO thanks for that warning re: water coming back up - never even thought about WHAT they might do to make it safe again! will keep an eye on it... though it is usually at 7.6 ph... so if it dropped a little I wouldn't complain... Ph in my tank is 7.2... from all the bog wood. my temp dropped down at one point to 71*.... normal is a nice steady 77-78.... and in the middle of the day on saturday got to 81*... tried floating ice packs but couldn't re-freeze them... I don't know if that drop would kill anything? I kept it oxygenated, but couldn't really do too much to control the temp with no power at all.... I will def. do a good vac. this weekend... thanks~! I will keep an eye on it, but seems with the substrate I shouldn't have TO much of a problem! :)

[doug z]

Nitrosomonas speciallize in the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite and Nitrospirae specialize in the oxidation of nitrite to nitrate.

Good to know!!

Thanks Alfcea!

Ohhh.. Temp variations.. Good catch!

Never even thought about that..

[abaigael04]

well my tank is back to its 77*... so it should be pretty steady at that temp and that temp seems pretty good for growing back whichever bacteria died off... I know I didn't kill them all off... so... guess just need to get them back up... :) thank you everyone! Learned some stuff today!

[MrDrums]

This is why I almost never test my water......as long as the fish look fine, the water is fine!:19: