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Nitrifying bacteria
- Thread starter Jaseon
- Start date
Thats where my confusion was. I thought initially that the ammonia, and its contact with water started a biochemical process, and that's how the nitrifying bacteria came from. In the situation that ive described i cant see any other way it can come in contact with the ammonia through the water so ill go along with it being by air.
Yeah i read that...well not all of it🙂
Have a look at <this paper>. In this example, the researchers identified between 1000 and 10000 fungal spores in every cubic meter of air, pertaining to several hundred fungi species. To put this in context, this means a person would breath in average 1-10 to spores in every breath. A similar reasoning applies to the <airborne propagation of algae>. <This book> describes other cases, including airborne propagation of bacteria. In short, your tank with "just" water and ammonia will contain a large count of different species of spores and bacteria from multiple sources, including the air, the water, and everything that was close to the tank, including you.
Oh yeah i understand that its all good although id say no two bacteria are the same nor do they perform the same function such as those that perform nitrification? I mean they are a unique set of bacteria with a specific aim?
Ammonia in its gaseous form is NH3. When dissolved in water, it forms the ammonium ion, NH4+.
JPC
I think grumpy was making the point that air is the bridge?
Hi all,
I think nitrifying organisms <"will always find sources of ammonia">. You can definitely speed that process up by adding <"an inoculum of suitable microbes">. There is a discussion of this in <"Dr Timothy Hovanec's comments about Bacterial supplements">.
Because ammonia rich resources are likely to be patchy, it would make evolutionary sense for the microbes that utilise them to have life stages that are reasonably mobile.
cheers Darrel
I think nitrifying organisms <"will always find sources of ammonia">. You can definitely speed that process up by adding <"an inoculum of suitable microbes">. There is a discussion of this in <"Dr Timothy Hovanec's comments about Bacterial supplements">.
Because ammonia rich resources are likely to be patchy, it would make evolutionary sense for the microbes that utilise them to have life stages that are reasonably mobile.
As a gas in the air and in aqueous solution it can be either NH3 or NH4+ <"dependent upon pH">.
cheers Darrel
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That’s why it’s safer to keep pH below 7.
Yes, there are specific organisms related to nitrification (ammonia-oxidizing archaea - AOA, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria - AOB, nitrite-oxidizing bacteria - NOB, ...) But these processes take place nearly everywhere, from volcanic hot streams to plant pots. These organisms are found in virtually all non-sterile environments, including plants, trees, soils and water sources, including clouds. Bacteria, <including nitrifying bacteria are found in clouds>, where <nitrification processes also take place>. You may be severely underestimating the prevalence of these organisms in this planet 😉
Hi all,
Since we've had mechanisms for <"looking for the genes"> that actually code for the oxidation of ammonia/ammonium (NH3/NH4+) and nitrite (NO2) to nitrate (NO3-) nitrifying bacteria have gone from being <"rare specialised organisms"> that only occur in a <"very particular range of circumstances">, to microbes that come <"from two of the three kingdoms of life"> and are <"virtually universal">.
cheers Darrel
That has been the real revolution in our understanding of nitrification.
Since we've had mechanisms for <"looking for the genes"> that actually code for the oxidation of ammonia/ammonium (NH3/NH4+) and nitrite (NO2) to nitrate (NO3-) nitrifying bacteria have gone from being <"rare specialised organisms"> that only occur in a <"very particular range of circumstances">, to microbes that come <"from two of the three kingdoms of life"> and are <"virtually universal">.
cheers Darrel
Vsevolod Stakhov
Member
I have recently conducted a simple experiment: I've placed two opened bottles in a dark warm place with tap water and added 10ppm of ammonia to one bottle and 0.5ppm of ammonia to another bottle. My experiment was to determine if there is any inhibition from high ammonia levels. But I have also checked how nitrifiction starts without any addition of external bacteria via substrate/fish/plants. I had to be patient - nothing happened for like a month and ammonia levels were stable. However, after around a month there was a huge drop of ammonia levels: a bottle with 10ppm ammonia has processed around 6ppm of ammonia to like 20+ ppm of nitrite. A bottle with 0.5ppm ammonia was able to reduce it's level to around 0.25ppm ammonia. So it seems that 10ppm ammonia has no negative effect, it actually increases ammonification activity comparing to 0.5ppm sample. Furthermore, nitrite oxidation phase has established shortly afterwards in both samples (dropping KH from 12 to like 4 in a sample with 10ppm ammonia). I have concluded two major things: that neither ammonia nor nitrite high concentartions do not actually inhibit any stages of nitrification, and, secondly, that nitrification can start without any external help but it might take much more time than a typical fish tank cycling.
The nitrification bacteria are everywhere. Have a <look at this thread> - you will not find the bacteria there but some interesting links 😉 I would say that an aquarium has higher potential than a bottle to be exposed and contaminated by bacteria in a shorter period of time.
