How long will bacteria last?

[cruzboy]

I will be moving cross country in a few short weeks. I have a plan in place for my fish, but was wondering about my filter media. I want to keep the bacteria intact as best I can to make cycling quicker when we get there. It is a 3 day drive. How long will the bacteria last without ammonia and what do you think would be the best way to move it? I was just going to keep it in thè container with the fish but if there is a better way please let me know. Thanks.

[PhillipOrigami]

Hmm. They last around 24h w/o ammonia.

I would put them in a nice big bucket and actually dose some ammonia during the trip, so they dont starve to death.

[Lady Hobbs]

No one knows how long bacteria will live without a food source. Some say several hours and some say days. Without a microscope, no one can make a guess. If you are worried, then I would put a wee bit of ammonia in a zip lock bag, fill it with tank water and add your media to the bag.

[icefreeze57]

when you take the water out fill the bucket your using with that water (dont WC like a week before to add extra "poop" and whatnot to the water) feed the bucket each day (overfeed it) that should break down in the water, if your media is already in a bag (like a bio bag or whatever that you put into the filter) leave that to float around itself... that might help


other option may be to buy some cheap guppies or something cheap and let them live in the bucket during travel, they are hardy and will probably survive the trip, feed them and whatnot

[bignellm]

That's an interesting idea. My version of this, would be pure Ammonia, old tank water, media, testing kit, 5 gallon bucket, tightly sealed. Fill with tank water, add ammonia, as if to cycle Test for concentration after mixing up, drop in media and test again each day. Add ammonia again if needed. maybe add a bubbler to the mix. Just what I'd probably try.

[pjaldave]

I will put the media with the fish if i were you. Or put it in a zip lock, poke small holes in the zip lock and put it in with the fish. That way they just use whatever the fish waste you have.