Debris In Tank Follow Up

[erk628]

I posted a question here last night about debris coming back in my tank from my filters. Tolak resonded and told me I should clean my filters. So I did, but when I got up this moring things were the same. I took the sponges back out and washed them out better in a bucket of tank water. Came home tonight from work and things were the same. I have two filters one on each side of the tank. Right now I'm trying to find out which one is causeing debris to come back in the tank. I have took one out and left one in, gonna see what it looks like tommorrow. If it looks the same I'm going to take that one out and put my other one in and see what it looks like after work. My question is how much of the bacteris in my filters will die with tith filters that is not in the tank. Is there anything I can do to help keep the bacteria alive incase the one sitting out is not the one thats putting debris back in tank. I'm getting a canister filter this weekend but I need some kind of filteration until then. Any suggestions welcome, thanks guys.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what size is the tank, what fish do you have in it and what make and model are the filters your using?

the obvious thought to me is that there's simply too much strain on the filters so they're not coping.

i do find sometimes after cleaning a filter out it will spew a load of debris back into the tank, however a day or so later the water should appear clearer so give it a couple of days to work.

the bacteria will live for up to 12 hrs if kept in water, but after 12 hrs with no food source it will start to die off, although i'm not sure how fast it will die. you could try putting the filter you take off into a bucket of tank water and adding some pure ammonia, that should keep the filter bacteria going, however i'd still be vigilent checking the water quality the few days afterwards as you may see a mini cycle and would have to do daily water changes to keep on top of it.