Preventing Beneficial Bacteria die off?

[Arch345]

My sole fish in a cycled tank just died and it's going to be a few days before my new heater arrives. I'm concerned about my bio filter and beneficial bacteria dying off since there's no food for them to eat.

Would dropping a few flakes and letting them decay on the gravel provide enough ammonia for the bacteria to survive for a like a week before a new fish is put into the tank?

I have a 6 gallon marineland eclipse tank..probably around 5 gallons with all the gravel, decorations, filter, etc inside.

Thanks

 

[FreshyFresh]

As long as the BB are kept in their nice warm, circulated, oxygenated water environment, they can lay dormant without a food source for a looooong time.

No worries.

You see a lot of misinformation out there in regards to BB dying off right away due to lack of food.

 

[Arch345]

As long as the BB are kept in their nice warm, circulated, oxygenated water environment, they can lay dormant without a food source for a looooong time.

No worries.

You see a lot of misinformation out there in regards to BB dying off right away due to lack of food.

thanks for the reply! uh..what do you consider nice and warm? As I mentioned in my earlier post..my heater is not working and needs to be replaced. The current temp in the tank is about 65-68 F. Is that too cold?

 

[FreshyFresh]

Room temp like that should be just fine. Once you've got a healthy BB colony established, it would take some pretty extreme conditions to kill it all off. Just keep the filters running and the water quality good.