Will beneficial bacteria survive tap water???

[NeonTetra1]

I have a new tank I setup for a friend and I used one of my seeded filters with lots of beneficial bacteria so the tank already had lots of beneficial bacteria in it when I added the filter. Fast forward a few weeks, the water parameters have been perfect (Ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-10) and so I went away for a week and the filter got a little clogged and wasn't flowing as much. I told my friend to rinse one of the small sponges (there is multiple filter sponges and a filter cartridge) in tap water for 2 seconds, quickly squeeze it, then put it back in the filter. I don't know if she misunderstood me but she rinsed all of the filter media in tap water for longer than a couple seconds. I'm worried that the BB died in the tap water. When I set the tank up I squeezed the sponges in the main tank and it got really cloudy, so I'm hoping there is some still in the tank. When I get home I'm getting some bottled bacteria for a new tank so if I add that it will it hopefully help? There is a mystery snail and a couple cherry shrimp.

Thank you!!

 

[Azedenkae]

Most likely it is perfectly fine.

If she knows how to do it, get her to check your parameters. If ammonia and nitrite continues to remain at zero, you are fine.

 

[NeonTetra1]

Unfortunately she doesn't know how to (it's the liquid test kit so it's harder to do) and we live very close to each other so I'm the one who usually does the WWC and testing, but I come back on the 14th so I will test then.

 

[fishywoo]

I have a new tank I setup for a friend and I used one of my seeded filters with lots of beneficial bacteria so the tank already had lots of beneficial bacteria in it when I added the filter. Fast forward a few weeks, the water parameters have been perfect (Ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-10) and so I went away for a week and the filter got a little clogged and wasn't flowing as much. I told my friend to rinse one of the small sponges (there is multiple filter sponges and a filter cartridge) in tap water for 2 seconds, quickly squeeze it, then put it back in the filter. I don't know if she misunderstood me but she rinsed all of the filter media in tap water for longer than a couple seconds. I'm worried that the BB died in the tap water. When I set the tank up I squeezed the sponges in the main tank and it got really cloudy, so I'm hoping there is some still in the tank. When I get home I'm getting some bottled bacteria for a new tank so if I add that it will it hopefully help? There is a mystery snail and a couple cherry shrimp.

Thank you!!

Not sure if that will help now, hopefully it does, but as a future tip use a container of the aquarium water to squeeze out the sponges, shake off media in it, that way you'll get the debris out and won't have to worry about the beneficial bacteria.

 

[NeonTetra1]

I usually do that but I wanted to make this as easy as possible for her but I will tell her to do that next time if I need to

 

[ProudPapa]

I agree with Azedenkae that it's probably okay. Even if that rinsing did kill the bacteria on the filter media (which I doubt), there is likely enough on the other surfaces in the tank to handle the bioload from a few shrimp and one snail.

 

[SparkyJones]

it can, but if you would normally water change and dechlorinate, theres a good chance there is residual dechlorinator in the tank also which will neutralize it before it's had time to kill everything off which actually takes longer than a few minutes to happen.
Some people have no problem and other people have a problem every time. All you can do is test and see if it worked out, you should know within a day if it's fine or not. the ammonia or nitrite will return if it isn't.

 

[86 ssinit]

It’s all up to what’s up with the tap water. Is there a lot of chlorine or chloramine in it? I came to this site in 17. Before that I cleaned all my filter media in tap water. 30+years. So is it bad? For me no. I like the idea of using old tank water so I do now. Cory did a study where they clean their fx6 filter with tap water without a problem. So I think she’s fine. Thing is there’s bacteria growing everywhere in the tank and killing some off just makes room for more to grow. New young bacteria.

 

[NeonTetra1]

I think there is a lot of chlorine in my water but when I set the tank up a squeezed the sponges so I think there is BB in the water column. Thank you for the help, I can stop stressing now!!