Biological Filter - without fish

[awpong]

I am going to be leaving for 2 months during winter vacation, and I was planning on selling mey fish back to the LFS during this tim. I was wondering how long my biological filter would live without fish in the tank?

It's a 10 gallon tank with 1 dwarf puffer fish and lots of artificial plants

 

[prsturm]

You can always dump in time-release vacation tablets that will dirty up your aquarium while you're gone.

 

[OrangeCones]

I was wondering how long my biological filter would live without fish in the tank?

Two or three days.

 

[awpong]

Is there anything that I could do so that I wouldn't have to recycle?

 

[bassbonediva]

Keep a few shrimp in the tank and leave a few of those vacation feeders as suggested. The shrimps' waste, along with the decomposing feeder(s), will help maintain the cycle.

The only other thing I could suggest would be to have a friend with a tank run your filter on their tank (in addition to their own filter) while you're away and thereby maintain the cycle on your filter media.

 

[Dylandrewsdad]

Ask your LFS if you can give them your bio media and they can keep it in a tank, then when you return, retrieve it and put it into your tank...POOF instant cycle!