The
link below is from a Dr. Franco in Italy. He did an experiment with adding two
small BCB (Biocenosis Clarification Baskets) to a 700-liter aquarium that had a
Nitrate (NO3) reading of 60-ppm and a PO4 (phosphates) reading .75-1.0 ppm.
I just wanted to make a comment on something
I seen on Google Plus. I’m also going to leave out any name(s) and the
specifics of what the person was talking about…meaning pond or aquarium.
Basically they said that periodically you
must add a bacteria inoculator to your system to keep it clean and running
right. This goes for ponds and/or aquariums. Please be aware that not all
bacteria in a bottle are created equal and are not as effective as some may
think. Read about 11 commercial
products tested claiming to contain bacteria that will facilitate in the
conversion of toxic ammonia to not as toxic Nitrates.
Bacteria depend upon available foodstuff, the
volume and compensation of incoming nutrients and the health, condition, and
type of substrate used. In other word, bacteria will increase or decrease
depending on food availability, carbon, oxygen and the medium used.
Carbon
availability for autotrophs, or those bacteria that utilize light and carbon
dioxide to carry out their biological processes and can quickly use an
abundance of inorganic carbon. Heterotrophs are mostly responsible for breaking
down organic matter and thrive in areas where diffusion abounds and where
organic carbon is well cycled. It is also a fact that mediating biochemical
transformations (protein/enzymes) and genetic controls (DNA/RNA) show a common
reliance on specific ratios (called: Redfield Ratio) of carbon (DOC), nitrogen
(DON), and phosphorus (DOP). It could then be said organic carbon is a major
player in how well inorganic nutrients, example, nitrogen and phosphorus, are
utilized.
Evidence suggests that when heterotrophic
bacteria exist at below their full degree or extent by both organic carbon and
mineral nutrients, they have a negative impact on their trophic neighbors in
the microbial food network. In other words, if they suffer, it appears to
negatively affect neighboring processes. Nevertheless, nitrogen is generally
the primary limiting nutrient in our systems because it controls the rate of
primary production. If the system is supplied with high levels of “nitrogen,”
then algal blooms will generally occur.
Whether organic carbon is cycled or stored, it appears to be a matter
that relates to how the substrate used supplies heterotrophic and autotrophs
their essential foodstuffs. In fact, it has been shown that when only an
organic carbon source is added, autotrophs are out competed by heterotrophs for
inorganic nutrients, demonstrating a need for the corresponding nitrogen. If
inorganic nutrients are only added, autotrophs will increase, such as
cyanobacteria. Therefore, the ratio between carbon and nitrogen and that of
phosphorus are very important factors when facilitating population densities of
either bacterium. The substrate along with where diffusion abounds (Like that
of a plenum.) is the most critical player, are very efficient at cycling
organic carbon so as to balance the ratio of available constituents.
It is only when microbial communities
collapse that any hobbyist would or need to add any kind of bacteria supplement
to any freshwater or saltwater system. If for some reason the ecosystem does
collapse and need a supplement then the hobbyist must find out why the systems
foundation for incorporating important biological pathways closed to chemical
mediators and not just add a Band-Aid to the system. Band-Aid’s do not fix
problems they only cover them up.
So, before you spend your expendable income
on needless bacteria cultures, investigate why you need the cultures in the
first place and fix the problem. There is a lot of ‘snake-oil’ out there and
anyone can get talked into buying them.
A word of admonition to the hobbyists: Do
you remember the first time someone chorused you and stole money from you under
the pretense of commerce? For most people being taken from ones wealth is a
practice that will happen more than once during their lifetime. Several years
ago, I bought a commercially available nitrifying product from a well-known
manufacturer that also professionally installs ponds. The bottles labeled
stated that it would remove unwanted sludge from the pond and the ponds filter.
When I opened the bottle, it was very pungent and smelled like hydrogen sulfide
(rotten eggs); to my surprise, all the bottles on the shelves smelled exactly
the same way. I then bought one of the bottles to do some experimental studies;
before any experimentation was to be conducted, I contacted the manufacture to
speak to a microbiologist on what exactly were the particular bacteria that is
contained in their product. I had introduced myself to the receptionist so she
would not think this was some kind of prank call. Despite numerous phone calls,
no one ever contacted me, to explain anything about their product.
Without knowing, the exact bacteria / bacterium content of this
particular bottle (I did know one thing; it was not microaerophile in nature),
I conducted some studies to determine the efficiency of this commercially
available product. The amount of product added to the filter based on the
manufacture’s labeled directions and administered accordingly.
The results determined this product to be
unsuccessful in its claims at removing any sludge from the pond and/or filter.
I can only imagine how many products are on shelves that are being sold to the
hobbyists that are inadequate and do absolutely nothing for the betterment of
the hobby. These products are nothing more than ephemera placebos designed to
make the hobbyists believe that they have done something good, when in reality;
they have done nothing at all for the betterment of their pond or aquatic
animals.
Marketing departments have become very clever at dodgery and telling
half-truths. Even at making up impressive-sounding but meaningless jargon to
sell what is often nothing more than snake oil. A hobbyist pond is a singularly
inappropriate Beta-test site for products a manufacturer has not fully R&D’d
themselves. Our ponds are not the proving grounds for new products that may
have teething problems. It now borders a hobbyist on the behavior nearer to
that of a test-consultant than a pond-hobbyist. We succinctly define the
responsibilities of a manufacturer of pond products: First, to be able to make
a worthy product. Second, to be able to make it consistently and reliably. Each
is as important as the other is, and both are relevant to the consumer, not
just the first.
We hobbyists like to believe it is all about the aquatic animals health,
safety, and well-being, but when manufactures become inebriated with cupidity
and lie their way into our pocketbooks; it is then obvious that it is really
all about the Benjamin's. Innovation has been the growth engine of this hobby
from the very beginning, on both the aquatic animals and the hardware sides.
However, history has taught us that big firms, if left to their own devices,
can also stifle innovation. It is like a moment of creation at one end of the
line and a perversion of intent at the other. It is really too bad that there
is not a “Consumer Reports®” that hobbyist can read and use as a guideline
about products that are being made and sold for this particular pastime.
Unfortunately, there is not; do to the fact of people having liticaphobia (the
fear of lawsuits). I know the indignation and bemusement hobbyist must feel
over this whole thing, but learning the truth about that better mousetrap will
never become a reality.
However, in the pond/aquarium hobby there are profits to be made by those
who would prey on the ignorant. I think everyone can remember the famous words
that the spirit of Christmas present said to Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles
Dickens’ classic 1843 novel — A Christmas Carol. “Beware of these two children,
this boy is ignorance, this girl is want, most of all beware of this boy.” In a
hobby like ours, we should never let ourselves befall to that boy of ignorance.
However, unfortunately it has almost come down to the point were hobbyists need
to have at least a B.S. degree in Microbiology and in Biochemistry to make an
astute purchase. These products known more as essentially, Lysenko’s
methodology 1: “Avoid verification,” and should be avoided at all cost.
Unfortunately, for the hobbyists he or she will never know until they buy the
product about its defalcations; then for themselves find out what it does or
does not do.
[Www.koifishponds.com/state_of_the_art_filters.htm:
Read what David A. hast to says on the subject matter on filters and the
misleading information manufactures give on their capabilities.-Ed.]
1:
Trofim D. Lysenko was a Soviet agronomist, active between 1929 and 1965,
Who attempted to annihilate the science of
genetics in the Soviet Union using tactics of pseudoscience combined with
unrelenting attacks on accepting scientific theory.
Dr. Novak
Anoxicfiltrationsystem.blogspot.com
