Nitrogen cycle and beneficial bacteria

I recently lost almost all my livestock in my four year old tank from Hurricaine Irene. No power for five days and no generator (which I have recently purchased). I still have a red leg hermit, two mushroom corals, a newly discovered peanut worm, and bristle worms. Due to the mass die off there was quite an ammonia spike which I did several water changes to bring down for the remaining inhabitants. When I started the tank, I used live rock and live sand to start my nitrogen cycle. I've been monitoring the ammonia for a few days now and it has not dropped. I'm also reading 0 on nitrites and nitrates. I'm concerned the beneficial bacteria were wiped out (is this even possible?) with the rest of the tank. If they were, will they magically come back or will I need to jump start the population with a scoop of ls or small lr?

 

If you still have livestock in there, your bacteria should not have died; also, I would question the validity of your ammonia reading- test kits do go bad. Do you have a second kit or are you able to take a water sample to your LFS?

 

Hi Mindyv82

I do not believe you lost anywhere near 100% of your bacteria
Low oxygen levels caused by lack of flow, will have probably been the cause of death of the fish, which due to the speed they expired at, would have created a massive spike in nutrients, combined with fact there was no power and as such no efficient means of processing the nutrients created ( no flow, so water not carried around the tank and to the bacteria on routine basis)

the bacteria that converts waste to ammonia are oxygen requiring species, thus with the power off, oxygen levels dropping etc, you will have lost a percentage of those bacteria

but some will have remained, and they will reproduce and your ammonia will once again zero out

it could not hurt IMO to add an additional source of beneficial bacteria to speed up the re seeding process, and make conditions better for the remaining life forms in the tank

you could use some live sand from a trusted source
or you could use a live bacteria product, such as MB7 from Brightwell or Dr Tims product
both would help you quickly re establish the biological filtration capacity

Steve

 

Very sorry about your loss, The next person I see named "Irene" I'm gonna Whack her In the Head With a Hammer, just for your Tank Mindy....

 

Thanks for the quick replies. I though about the reliability of the test kit but believe it is good. I was using it before the storm and reading 0 fir the ammonia. I was also hoping if some things survived in the tank then hopefully not all the bacteria expired. It helps to hear others thinking the same thoughts. I will continue to monitor the ammonia levels and look into the MB7 and Dr. Tim's. Thanks for the advice.