Will beneficial bacteria still be there?

Question

I dismantled a fish tank about 24 hours ago...I left the gravel in the bottom with some water. Will the beneficial bacteria still be in the gravel? ( I set up a new tank, put the old filter on it...I put a different colour of gravel in the new tank but am wondering if it's worth putting some of the old gravel in the new tank. Old tank was having ammonia spikes since a move a month ago but was still processing some of the ammonia to nitrites and then to nitrates)

Answer 1

The main thing you will need is the old filter and alot of beneficial bacteria from your old tank will be within the sponge of the filter. When the filter is turned on, all the bacteria is flushed through the tank, I wouldn't advise adding old gravel as this would just add pollution to your tank, adding artificial plants and ornaments will add beneficial bacteria to your tank also. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

If the gravel was kept wet than most of the bacteria growing on it will still be there and viable.

So it will still be usefull for seeding your new tank.

Ian

Answer 3

I was thinking about getting a bigger filter for my tank.  I was going to use both filters for a while until the new filter was established.  They do say to add old gravel or an ornament from an established tank to help get the new tank to cycle.  If you had a problem with ammonia spikes you can keep doing water changes until it is finally down to zero.  I did 20% water changes for a week and it eventually brought my ammonia down to zero. It was off the charts I think because I was overfeeding and I had a power outage.

Answer 4

Bacteria needs oxygen to survive since there was no circulation you may have lost some but there may still be some still alive just a smaller quantity.

Answer 5

Yes there will be still some part of bacteria. My advice for you is to buy bacteris in the nearest pet store. Bacteris needs filter, you probably removed it, right? Oxygen has to be always in water than bacteria will survive.

Read more about this on this website http://aquatropicalfish.com