amazing facts i find regarding bacteria in the marine aquarium, a bunch of random musings hopefully directly related to thread title
-vital space in the marine aquarium can be added (any surface area) and bacteria will colonize it fully even if nutrient levels aren't raised on purpose. To me this is fascinating, its not just nutrients that hold colonial steady-states in our tanks, its the amnt of surface area as well. Nutrients are fluxing always in all tanks, and bacterial populations follow suit and then stabilize out based on import/export variables for a given location, but its amazing that if you simply add 40% more dry surface area of any habitable kind, and wait long enough keeping the exact same import/export details, that new surface area fills with bacterial colonies and those bacteria wouldnt have been able to grow in the same way on current active surface areas due to direct resource competition, and war.
colonial coverage tends to get maxed out over time with mixed colonies competing for this vital space, and counts are kept pretty much in check from being able to increase huge percentages given the same nutrients in the tank (surely we can spike a bac bloom by changing variables in a tank however).
Vital space is an interesting catch 22 for marine tanks, as it also is a detritus sink that adds to cleaning requirements. The right amount of surface area or vital space for a marine tank IMO is the amount needed to make sure no free ammonia is present for a given bioload, and then no extra surface area employed, to keep cleaning requirements down.
This is in opposition to older techniques of massively overdoing surface areas req'd (bioball chambers) where the live rock and live sand would easily process all raw ammonia. Its not that bioballs are bad, its that they are added at a time when no extra surface area was needed in many tanks. If they are used to make the difference between a real true constant .25 and a true 0, then they are perfectly matched for the system. To me, not understanding surface area dynamics makes people overpurchase or set up a reef tank as an early nitrate producer right off the bat.
-MB7/various bacteria in a bottle:
the number of aged tanks fully tracked online via threads and Pauls reef of 40 yrs (even though he's NSW, thats a bigtime heterogeneity boost for marine bacteria compared to synthetic salt users but still he doesnt add bottle bac Ive read) simply show zero additives are rquired for success for any captive marine organism we do well with. I have never used a bottle bac in any way, and Im not opposed to them if a need arises. Speed cycling totally dry substrates w bottle bac and liquid cleaning ammonia is legit biology, bring a new tank up to par in 2 weeks. Some people have used MB7 et al to fight invasions of other colonizing invaders like cyano, for example, playing totally on the vital space competitions listed above. They are a valid option tool in my opinion
-do we need to refresh our colonies over time?
Opinions vary. I never will, my tank was nearly a decade old before i cleaned it out and started it with the same surface area only cleaned nicely and there will be not one time ill need or use a bottle bac in the history of my aquarium keeping fw and sw combined, even though I think they are valid tools to try in times of need
/our tanks are inundated daily, by the minute, with a constant supply of both nitrifiers and mixed bacterial colonies! Most people think -they- control the nitrifier input by what retail doser they add, nope, you have some nitrifiers under grimy fingernails right now from the garden soil awaiting cross contamination and anything you transfer between tanks like water or hard surfaces has nitrifiers and mixed communities and they will either bloom and select to remain in the new habitat, or they'll bloom and die and become trace ammonia feed for those who did remain. *notice on the pro blogs recently there are more and more bac studies discussing how they can be optimized to compete against algae and other invaders, to me thats neat upcoming science and a legit reason to consider altering bac levels to further understanding.
-nitrifers come out of your untreated tap water along with mixed aerobes and generalized bac colonies~google it, see your local colony counts the water department puts out annually, and thats not even counting what your pipes add to the output!
how amazing is that~ Pipe scum, that little scummy black o ring on your faucet not changed since '89=your bottled bac source.
and they even find food in water that doesnt have to have free ammonia readable, and they survive your 120 degree hot water setting too~
(implications for reef tanks)-does a fallow period of no fish make your tank unable to support them upon reintroduction?
do we have to add raw ammonia or precursor proteins to break down to keep our bacteria from dying, or are they scavenging resources as a functional colony that we may not be taking into consideration?
i see 3 or 4 more key details about our bacteria but this above is enough to kick up the thread action i bet
ps, i like long biology posts and the retorts to them=fun.
B
