A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Have I kiled my bacteria?

I'm rebuilding my GH and upgrading everything but the cold weather came in early and quick while everything was still open. Yesterday I separated my GB from the FT to start the move and ran into a problem that delayed a one day operation. Last night the temp dropped to freezing to the point that water in buckets had a surface coating of ice. The GB had been drained but it just occurred to me that the bacteria and worms might have suffered due to the cold. Do you think I'm in trouble?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brent Crittenden on November 3, 2014 at 1:10pm

As I understand it, bacteria should survive the cold. High temps would be different. Your worms might be another story though. I would check them out after you get it going again.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Vlad Jovanovic on November 3, 2014 at 1:56pm

Hi Jeff...they may have suffered a bit, but it's unlikely that you'll be in a "starting over" scenario...just get everything back on line and running..and be somewhat diligent about checking your NH4, NO2 levels over the course of the next week...I bet the whole thing amounts to nothing more than a little hiccup...

Not feeding the fish until you see what's going on might be wise too...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jeff S on November 3, 2014 at 4:00pm

Thanks for the support. Still haven't put it all back together but pored some tank water in the GB and covered it with lights inside the cover. Temp got up to 63 so hopefully I'm OK.