Beneficial Bacteria...

[The Taffy Apple]

Morning all, hope this thread finds you all well.

So, as the topic says... would it be possible to freeze beneficial bacteria for the purpose of new fishkeepers or yourself?

Certain bacteria 'sleep' when frozen..hence the reason we always have to be careful when defrosting, preparing and cooking fish, poultry and certain red meats, with the cooking process killing them off. I understand we are talking about a different 'type' of bacteria with reagrds to those we need in our filters, but wouldn't the theory be the same?

I have looked into this topic on a couple of occasions, but not really found anything or anyone that could prove or dismiss otherwise.

Any thoughts highly appreciated.
Terry.

PS..i don't intend carrying out this process, it's simply a theory that has been bugging me for a couple of weeks

 

[ProjectMayhem]

Depends on the bacteria but most can be frozen

 

[willowstwin]

hmmmm want me to try it? I have a tank here at work that is currently shutting down (old fish dying off)... I could take a section of the filter medium, freeze it for a day or 2, then put it in a filter in an elodea tank we have here (no elodea in it currently) and see if it cycles?

 

[StandbySetting]

2 Days isn't long enough in my opinion, if it's to be successful it needs to last for months.

 

[willowstwin]

I could stick it in til the end of the summer holidays and/or try at the end of september?

 

[The Taffy Apple]

2 Days isn't long enough in my opinion, if it's to be successful it needs to last for months.

^^^^^ this.

For it to be beneficial to any type of fish keeper, it needs to be frozen in situ for weeks if not months.

But hey, give it a go willowstwin... if you can get it to last months then i want a guest appearance on Dragons' den with you!!!

Terry.

 

[ZoddyZod]

hmmmm, an interesting suggestion. If it works, there's a genuine 'instant cycle' product in the pipeline.....

 

[StandbySetting]

It's probably already been done, I'll have a search for a few papers and see if there is any documentation of it, my guess is if it works then it would be for sale, but there used to be a product called biospira that was refrigerated, and worked too.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

< sneakes off to a 'copyright' internet site >









Terry.

 

[micko]

This is an interesting topic.

Good idea The Taffy Apple

 

[Wigster]

Intriguing. Definitely isn't much info on Google about such things.

 

[StandbySetting]

I've not got time to search at the moment but if any of you want to carry out any scientific research then this is a good tool to use to search for papers and journals:

http/scholar.google.co.uk/

 

[The Taffy Apple]

I've not got time to search at the moment but if any of you want to carry out any scientific research then this is a good tool to use to search for papers and journals:

http/scholar.google.co.uk/

Still hitting dead-ends SbS... the nearest i found was a question asked on another fish forum, of which it was never answered or taken seriously, it may seem.

I'd love to see willowstwin try it, keep us updated on this one my friend?

Terry.

 

[ProjectMayhem]

Morning all, hope this thread finds you all well.

So, as the topic says... would it be possible to freeze beneficial bacteria for the purpose of new fishkeepers or yourself?

Certain bacteria 'sleep' when frozen..hence the reason we always have to be careful when defrosting, preparing and cooking fish, poultry and certain red meats, with the cooking process killing them off. I understand we are talking about a different 'type' of bacteria with reagrds to those we need in our filters, but wouldn't the theory be the same?

I have looked into this topic on a couple of occasions, but not really found anything or anyone that could prove or dismiss otherwise.

Any thoughts highly appreciated.
Terry.

PS..i don't intend carrying out this process, it's simply a theory that has been bugging me for a couple of weeks

Had to test this, and took some serious looking up because it's rarely found to affect humans.

The nitrifying bacteria in aquariums belong to the thiobacillus family, these bacterium freeze at -10 C and can be kept frozen between -14 and -10 and still be viable after controlled (basically slow) thawing.

***EDIT***

There is also no known expiration on the bacterium kept at this temperature, albeit no one probably tested it that long but it should be able to last a good many years.

 

[Fishy friend2]

I wonder how the beneficial bacteria survives in a bottle