Power Outage

[Aqua sobriquet]

How long does the power need to be off before the bacteria in a canister filter dies off? Assuming you reach that limit what’s the best thing to do, rinse all the biological media or something more drastic? We had power outages of a few hours many years ago and it didn’t seem to be a problem.

 

[jaypeecee]

Hi @Aqua sobriquet

If your biological filter is fully established (i.e. been running for a few months), I think you are very unlikely to have a problem. And your previous power outages are evidence of that.

JPC

 

[ian_m]

I had 3 days one winter, when a neutral fault at substation tripped the house RCD whilst I was away. Tank was 15'C but all recovered once power was returned. No change to plants and fish.

 

[Garuf]

I moved house and through my own negligence (criminal) I somehow managed to not plug the filter in and not notice due to being at work when the photoperiod was going on until the weekend, meaning over a week. I noticed, clicked’er on and did a big ol water change and then monitored the tank for the following week and nothing detectable happened. I suspect what this is really saying to us is that most filtration ain’t really ‘appenin’ in the filter but in tank so to speak.