Nitrogen Cycle

[TraceyB]

Good reading

http/www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Nitrogen_Cycle.html

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Just an FYI re that information. That site is where I purchased my UV unit. I did a lot of reading there regarding UVs. Recently I have been doing a lot of research into the nitrogen cycle which entails a lot of Googling (especially The Scholar area). The upshot is that article popped up in a search, so I read it.

I was shocked to see it claimed that the nitrifying bacteria in our tanks, which are known to be gram negative, were in fact gram positive. I went through an exchange of emails with the author/site owner over this. I provided him with a bunch of information, the final piece of which was phptographic evidence in which one can clearly see that the bacteria are indeed gram negative. He had also insisted I provide plausible explanations for why his experience showed it is possible to cause harm to gram negative bacteria by using medications primarily intended for use against gram positive bacteria and why some gram-negative meds had minimal effect on biofilters. I was able to suggest several possibilities, including the one that now appears in the article. He revised his article in that respect.

I thought the rest of what I read was pretty well stated. There was one other area of disagreement. My research points to the fact that when we cycle a new tank without either seed material from another tank nor bottled bacteria, that the source of the initial bacteria we build on is our tap water and not from bacteria floating around airborne. This is true even when that tap water has been treated with chloramine or even chlorine by the water company.