Ouch!! First off, I think you are doing everything you can at the moment to re-colonize your bacteria without stressing your fish too much.
As for no bacteria surviving, I'd imagine some did. However, if any of the gravel was vacuumed that could have played a little part. I vacuum half my gravel every other water change, so roughly gravel vac'd once per month. I always vac gravel on days I dont do filter maintenance.
I'd say that you probably have some bacteria just not enough for the stocking level of the tank. Based on that I'd say a couple weeks and things should be back to normal.
Is this the only tank you have?? If not seed the tank with filter media from another tank if you have one....if not maybe a friend or neighbor with an established tank. That should speed things up.
I'd also give the wife a class on how to do tank maintenance. I had to do this when I went to Iraq for a year. I usually do all maintenance, but when I left my wife had to pick it up. She did good though, with only a minimal amount of fish lost over the year.
Hope everything works out. Keep us updated.
As for no bacteria surviving, I'd imagine some did. However, if any of the gravel was vacuumed that could have played a little part. I vacuum half my gravel every other water change, so roughly gravel vac'd once per month. I always vac gravel on days I dont do filter maintenance.
I'd say that you probably have some bacteria just not enough for the stocking level of the tank. Based on that I'd say a couple weeks and things should be back to normal.
Is this the only tank you have?? If not seed the tank with filter media from another tank if you have one....if not maybe a friend or neighbor with an established tank. That should speed things up.
I'd also give the wife a class on how to do tank maintenance. I had to do this when I went to Iraq for a year. I usually do all maintenance, but when I left my wife had to pick it up. She did good though, with only a minimal amount of fish lost over the year.
Hope everything works out. Keep us updated.
