Autotrophic Bacteria Colonization And Capturing/collecting

[fatheadminnow]

Has anyone thought about colonizing a lot of Autotrophic Bacteria and then tried any means to capture/collect them?  I know there was a product years back that sold us these bacteria and want to figure out how they collected the bacteria?  Any thoughts?

 

[Chad]

The problem with this is keeping the bacteria alive during transport and more difficult shelving. In a bottle the bacteria are only going to have a certain shelf-life which makes such products difficult.
 
There are many products that do this, or claim to. Some are of dubious effectiveness and others, if purchased within the expiration date, have received good reviews. I personally don't use them because I find them totally unnecessary. Getting media from a friend, fish store, or another of your own tanks does the same thing and is free. My personal philosophy is why spend money on something nature provides me for free?

 

[fatheadminnow]

I am not spending money on this.  I know all too well about the products sold today that claim they do this.  I think it was call "Biro Spira" that had a good one where it was kept refrigerated to keep the bacteria alive for longer periods of time.  And why am I curious?  Because I might want to do this someday... make a product that can be used for cycling tanks.  
 
So back to my previous question.  I want to know how to collect the bacteria.  I can colonize a lot of it but want to know how to get them off the media into a bottle form that is consistent nearly every time.  Just a thought I had.
 
And thanks for the response!

 

[Chad]

I realize you're not spending money, but if you created a product then others would be, unless you plan on giving it away for free.
 
Collection is a matter of giving the bacteria a media they can fix into flocculates. The floc can then be easily collected with a suction device like a hypodermic, eye dropper, or turkey baster.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Thanks that was what I was thinking.  And I am not sure what I will be doing with it just want to figure it out.  I just can't see a suction device being all that consistent from one time to another but it's worth a shot.  

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Actually, you first problem is going to be creating a proper environment to culture the bacteria. But more importantly is how you intend to acquire pure cultures to start with. When I buy bottled nitrifyers from Dr. Hovanec I know I am getting the proper bacteria and I am not getting anything harmful hitching along. One can't say this when taking media or gravel from somebody else's tank.
 
There area a number of companies that already do this. They are doing better and cheaper than you would be able to as well. But then they have laboratory grade equipment, use trained microbiologists and are generally experts in the field. They sell to the aquarium industry, to public aquariums, to aquaculture facilities and to waste and drinking water treatment plants.

 

[Chad]

You're right of course, but when we add ammonia and start the cycle that way don't we get a pure bacterial start from it?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Actually, you first problem is going to be creating a proper environment to culture the bacteria. But more importantly is how you intend to acquire pure cultures to start with. When I buy bottled nitrifyers from Dr. Hovanec I know I am getting the proper bacteria and I am not getting anything harmful hitching along. One can't say this when taking media or gravel from somebody else's tank.
 
There area a number of companies that already do this. They are doing better and cheaper than you would be able to as well. But then they have laboratory grade equipment, use trained microbiologists and are generally experts in the field. They sell to the aquarium industry, to public aquariums, to aquaculture facilities and to waste and drinking water treatment plants.

 
Why are you assuming I don't know these things?  I have taken all this into account and have been doing this for years and years. Your response has deviated from my question by quite a degree.  

 

[Chad]

Though I do understand that your question is about collection methods I feel that TwoTankAmin isn't totally off the mark in suggesting that any collection needs to be of a pure product.
 
While I suggested creating a floc and sucking it up he's saying that doesn't go far enough. There either needs to be a method of bacterial separation or better yet to begin with a pure strain. Assuming you do start with a pure strain then I go back to my method of creating a floc and sucking it up. I dabble in microscopy and have used dissolved organics to create the floc and extracted it with a pipette for viewing under the microscope. That method can work on a larger scale too I assume.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Awesome.  Thank you for that.  I just wish there was a place I could go to learn more about this.  Google is not the best for finding these types of answers unless, maybe, I dig really deep and search around.  So all the advice here is much appreciated.  

 

[Chad]

Dig deep, especially among the scholarly articles. A direct link to the search for them is http/scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en
Also you can contact a university for information, they are usually quite good at sharing.
 
As TTA points out above it is a specialized field so seek out the specialists.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Okay thanks a lot for your help!

 

[Chad]

Now when you do learn something come back to this thread and share it with us so we can all benefit from YOUR hard work.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Will do.  I looked aorund a little so far but there is too much to understand in a day. This will take sometime.  I might also contact some comapnies and see if they can't help me out.  Or posibably tour their facilities.  I will keep this updated but it might be sometime.

 

[raptorrex]

do a search for waterdrops posts, there is a lot of info on this subject there.
well not exactly this subject but on bacteria related to it.