Temp to kill beneficial bacteria

[Docdiggy]

A friend of mine did a large water change and the water was kind of cold. This change was done because the cycle was very large and there was alot of nitrate in the end. Could he have done any damage if the water was in the 40* range?

 

[alexander_ktn]

If there were no animals in the tank and the water was heated back up in a reasonable amount of time I doubt that he did much harm, even if some bacteria died it will be back to its initial population in no time.

I had live rock shipped in the winter and the isolation was broken, so the rock got very cold and still most stuff on it survived, so I see no reason why a bacteria population would not survive such an incident.

 

[Docdiggy]

Ok. There is nothing in the tank living.

 

[bertoni]

I agree that the microbes likely are fine. Fish or corals might have had problems, though, if there had been any in the tank.

 

[wolfblue]

Passing 50 and growth is down to about 25%, passing 40 and growth almost stops. They only really die at 32.

 

[Docdiggy]

Thanks guys. He cycled a 29 bio cube with a shrimp and the cycle was huge. It was only in there 2 days. His nitrite is still at 5 but, the nitrate is around 60 and I'm assuming it is only gonna go higher with there still being that much nitrite.

 

[disc1]

As long as you don't freeze them, going down in temp rarely kills bacteria. They'll slow down and won't grow until they're warmed back up. But they generally don't die from cold.

Heat is a different matter. The kill temperature is different for different types of bacteria. But they can all be destrayed at some level of heat.