There are many, many nitrification bacteria in the world. Every environmental niche has some. The trick is to have the ones that will establish indefinite colonies in aquariums. The fact that a preparation has nitrification bacteria does not mean anything on its value to hobbyists unless they are both alive and will establish in our tanks/filters. Bio-Spira meets both criteria if it has been properly stored and is in-date. None of the others I have tested do that.
Freeze dried bacteria
- Thread starter graysilm
- Start date
RTR,
Guy at my LFS (where I get my Bio Spira) said that as long as it's received (at the distribution point) and stored properly, the bacteria shelf life is indefinite because in the cold they "hibernate" until it is warmer again.
Given that we've found bacteria in the arctic regions that are floopthousand (means I can't remember the number) years old, do you feel this statement to be more or less true?
Roan
Guy at my LFS (where I get my Bio Spira) said that as long as it's received (at the distribution point) and stored properly, the bacteria shelf life is indefinite because in the cold they "hibernate" until it is warmer again.
Given that we've found bacteria in the arctic regions that are floopthousand (means I can't remember the number) years old, do you feel this statement to be more or less true?
Roan
Water bears :OT:ashdavid said:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag...icroscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjun00/mmbearp.html
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Umm, sumthin fishy I assume that you have never worked in a laboratory if you think that frozen bacteria are all dead. Freezing is appropriate media is used for bacteria and for vertebrate (including human) cells commonly. Freeze-drying is equally common for bacteria, and works a charm. You can store the ampules at ambient temperatures for years.
Roan - not the nitrification bacteria. Even with optimum temperatue and optimum medium, they are quiescent, not dormant. Nitrification bacteria which establish in capivity in tanks unfortunately have no dormant form. FD might be possible, but that is not a technique for the general consumer - the first culture or two post-FD tend to be a bit fragile.
Roan - not the nitrification bacteria. Even with optimum temperatue and optimum medium, they are quiescent, not dormant. Nitrification bacteria which establish in capivity in tanks unfortunately have no dormant form. FD might be possible, but that is not a technique for the general consumer - the first culture or two post-FD tend to be a bit fragile.
Oh...your assumption is correct!! But i saw the "nothing survives freezing" and thought of something that could. I wasn't implying bacteria could or could not survive that process, cuz I honnestly did not know. But I did know waterbears could survive freezing (and even unprotected trips to space) so I thought id share some irrelavant knowledge.RTR said:
Roan Art said:
Um, I'm not a scientist, but I work in a microbiology lab and if desired, can get a scientist (we have about 70 registered microbiologists) to at least point me to a definitive non-biased treatise on the subject of these bacteria...
But, the quote (which you say is wrong) says that Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter are FW and <other bacteria> are SW. You said this was backwards (if I understand what you're saying is backwards), and yet Bio-Spira states that it contains Nitrosomonas... And at least one of the threads you pointed to supported both of these being FW bacteria (along with a link to a more "scientific-sounding" article on another site).
It seems Marineland don't think Nitrobacter will do a lot of good in your aquarium, but that doesn't mean it's not FW... When I was discussing this with three of our scientists (two microbiologists and one chemist), I didn't even have to finish trying to pronounce nitrosomonas before they knew exactly what I was talking about and why I needed these bacteria (I was trying to see if the lab would have cultures I could somehow make use of (we don't)). They also knew the exact conditions of my tank (pH, temp, freshwater) as I know enough from working there to know that bacteria can be picky about their living environment.
Unfortunately, the lab doesn't have MIDI (I think it was) libraries for these bacteria, or I'd have them do various tests (I couldn't afford it without the employee discount).
Anywho, I think there's at least a couple of issues here (conditions under which various types of bacteria can survive and which bacteria are best suited to perform biological filtering in an aquarium).
If I can find out more from the scientists (they're very busy - business is good - so it may be a while before I can get on their good sides <g>), I'll post it with complete references.
Liz
Roan - The ATCC stores and ships these bugs as FD or frozen specimens. This does not mean that this is home technique (it is certainly not) or that hobbyists would be able to bring these bugs back into active form easily in their tanks.
http://www.atcc.org/
http://www.atcc.org/
OK, first thing I found out is that Nitrosomonas and Nitrosospira are freshwater and Nitrospira and Nitrobacter are marine water. They're bringing me photocopies from a book. More later. Oh, and yes, bacteria can survive freeze drying and just freezing. Will try to find out about these specific bacteria (apparently, it's going to depend on the details of the process you use).
Liz
Liz
