Urgent - Bacteria In A Bottle, Whats It Called?

[Ian H]

Im in the uk, whats the bacteria in a bottle that actually works, thats kep in a fridge???

Trying to help some one who had a bacterial bloom and then decided to wash EVERYTHING including filter with washing up liquid

 

[Ian H]

never mind, remembered it was called bactinettes, fat load of use you lot were

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Ian,

Bactinnettes is one of the better ones, but isn't great. It contains the correct AOB, Nitrosomonas, but the wrong NOB, Nitrobacter. The correct NOB is of course Nitrospira, which we now know thanks to our Dr Hovanec.

So in theory, it'll help process your ammonia, but leave you with a load of nitrite. Not very helpful......

Mature media is a much better option if at all possible.

 

[Ian H]

ooo something i've learnt. when was this discovered?

hes in londen and i am in south wales so mature media is not an option

hes doing a fish in cycle now

 

[Curiosity101]

Can't he have a ring around his local fish shops? Or you could try to find someone on the boards here who lives in london...

 

[Ian H]

well hes never kept fish before, hes keeping them for a friend whos on hols (from the sounds of it they dont know a great deal about fish either)

I'm sending him some cabomba, java fern and java moss to help absorb some of the ammonia, this with daily water changes should be alright.

oh and i call him a friend, hes a member on a car forum i've never met before ha ha!

 

[backtotropical]

ooo something i've learnt. when was this discovered?

See here

http/translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl...TA_enGB247GB247

You will notice that they say about the bacteria contained in the product;

The desired filter bacteria belong to the genus Nitrosomonas or Nitrobacter.

Whilst Nitrobacter is an NOB and will remove nitrite from the water, it won't help to cycle your filter as its not the predominant NOB in aquarium filters. It's effectively a short-term fix for nitrite removal, rather than a product which will actually cycle your filter with the correct NOB.

Nutrafin Cycle isn't recommended for the same reason.

 

[Ian H]

i always thought nutrafin cycle was crap because, well it was just crap! no living bacteria in it, more of a gimmick?

very interesting stuff though, i understand the cycle but never went as deep as to find out the name of the bacteria that done the job!

so the bacteria that changes ammonia to nitrite is called Nitrosomonas. nitrite to nitrate is called Nitrobakter? this is formed by oxidiation (sp?) so just contact with oxygen?

edit, does this mean that nutrafin cycle works in the form that ammonia is tunred into nitrite? would it not just need to be rich in oxygen to achieve this? or am i wrong? (as normal! but always happy to learn something new)

edit again

if this works why cant they create something that creates nitrite into nitrate??

 

[backtotropical]

Almost,

The bacteria which turns ammonia into nitrite is Nitrosomonas.

The bacteria which turns nitrite into nitrate is Nitrospira. It was thought for many years to be Nitrobacter, but Timothy Hovanec proved that this was in fact not the case. Nitrobacter is a genuine NOB, but not the one predominant in an aquarium environment.

I can point you towards his papers on the subject if you're interested.

Oxidation is the name of the process of turning ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate.

When Hovanec discovered that the correct NOB was Nitrospira, he patented the idea of bacteria in a bottle containing nitrospira, so nobody can make it without his permission. He was working for Marineland at the time and they made Bio-Spira, which no doubt you will have heard of? It was really quite good and basically the only one which actually worked.

I'm not sure what happened between them, but he doesn't work there any more and Bio-Spira is no longer the product it used to be. I'm fairly sure that this is because he took out the patent in his own name, not the company name, so now Marineland can't make the product which they once did.

He does have his own products out now called Doc Tim's The One and Only (or something similar), but I've never heard of anyone who has used it. I'd be interested to find out what its like.

 

[Ian H]

papers would be fantastic

ahhh i see, sorry mis -reqad the link. Yeah heard of bio-spira, though bacinettes was just the UK version though. You explain Oxidisation as ammonia>nitrite>nitrate. What happens with rust? or half an apple? i though that was oxidisation? (possibly/more than likely wrong here. not that good with science!)

 

[greenscooby]

I always thought that bacteria in a bottle was called ' a waste of money', thats what a majority of people i've spoken to on here say, and i agree with them.

 

[doktor doris]

I always thought that bacteria in a bottle was called ' a waste of money', thats what a majority of people i've spoken to on here say, and i agree with them.

Yes it is, unless it is called bio-spira or bactinettes and it is kept in a fridge and used within a few weeks of manufacture.

doris