Power was out for 3 hours, will it affect my tank?

[osromatra]

It's cycled and everything. But the power was out last night from about 1:30 til 5:30 due to storms. The filter is a Marineland Penguin. I heard it when it turned back on at 5:30 and it didn't sound like it needed to be reprimed to start it. Normally, when we do water changes and turn it off, when we turn it back on, it has to be reprimed, so I am assuming that meant it didn't "dry out" but being as I couldn't check for sure, I can't really say. I plan on checking my parameters closely for a bit regardless, but I was wondering if it really would have affected it? I turned the bubble wand up though, to offset any loss of O2.

[Oldfishlady]

Since it didn't dry out-the beneficial bacteria should be fine, however, I would monitor prams for a few days as you already planned and make water changes if needed-just in case....Usually it take over 6 hours for the BB to start dieing off and even then-it is gradual. It also depends on how mature the tank/cycle, tank size, stocking and general filter media care. Remembering, that you also have BB within the tank itself and in the top layer of substrate. If you have live plants in active growth will help too-since they can help provide some oxygen for the BB.

[osromatra]

I guess thats what concerned me since I had just done a fairly extensive gravel siphoning yesterday morning. But just checked and all is well.