Our Best Buddies, Bacteria!

[dYnO]

Hey guys I know that bacteria do all the work of keeping my tank clean. They're everywhere especially in the live rock and the sand. Anyone know who these guys really are? Do all people have the same bacteria in their tank that take care of the Ammonia, Nitrite, and finally Nitrate. Are these bacteria the same in every tank? Marine Tanks? Brackish Tanks? And Fresh Water tanks? It's amazing seeing the deep sand bed taking care of the nitrates, with thousands of bubbles coming up from it. I also a lot of the time see bubbles on my macro algae, what does this mean? Is it oxygen that the macro algae turned into oxygen?

[dYnO]

i meant Carbon Dioxide that the algae turned into oxygen

[smpolyp]

No one really knows for certain what bacteria are responsible for nitrification. Most books will tell you Nitrosonomas for your ammonia, and nitrobacter for your nitrite. I'm not sure who did the research, but an article in Aquarium Frontiers stating that nitrobacter comes from the idea of soil sampling and not marine. But the good news is a certain company has Tim Hovach(sp?) working on the true bacteria that does the job. There might be several. We may know in 6 months or so. Your right the algae dose convert the co2 to oxygen and create the bubbles you are talking about.

[dark horge]

Thanks, smpolyp!

It was indeed Timothy Hovanec who pointed out that neither Nitrosomonas nor Nitrobacter showed up prominently in samples of aquatic sludge.

It was instead Nitrosococcus and Nitrospira that turned up as most likely responsible for nitrogen processing in aquaria.

There's a lengthy discussion on this issue buried in our Archives :

here



[ 03-21-2001: Message edited by: dark horge ]