Im known for my non scientific insights. I leave the testing for those insights for the real scientists; ocassionally' 'eventually' some have been bang on the money! haha the others we dont talk about so much.
but to me, 'age'is a big part of the equation in ways that we dont fully understand.
Id never take it down if its isnt costing you pennies you need for food or you just really need he space. That water is full of man hours and life essence. :)
Altho we dont particularly transfer lots of good bacteria if we use it to start a cycle for example because the bacteria dont live in the water column as such but the biome is there (someone triggered this biome wording recently somehow, because it fits a perspective i have about littlemicro environments around the water molecules,similar to how a plant has this micro environemnt around itself and I cant get away from the fact that all life is water based but rarely pure water, wed possibly die if we drank pure water no? ) but I digress.
Id keep the water until you decide what to do with it next. Bacteria wont really die from lack of food, it will just stop doing its various tasks and chill out for months :)
keep the basics going with occasional water change still every few months
