Bacteria question

rckmtl

rckmtl

Active Member
Ok, so I've always kinda wondered this- If almost everything that goes in a fish tank needs to be carefully acclimated to things like temp. salin. and overall water quality....How come you can just dump in bacteria starters(like cycle/stablity/stress zyme/ect..) into fresh -or- saltwater without any acclimation, and it doesn't kill them?
 
Rougiem

Rougiem

Ichthy Inquisitor
PREMIUM
Witfull said:
because they are tough~~
Click to expand...

Absolutely!

Bacteria will acclimate to any environment if just the basic requirements are there (nutrients, temperature, oxygen or lack of, light or lack of, pH ect...). Many species are very hardy and can quickly adapt to different conditions. One tremendous advantage of bacteria is there ability to reproduce so quickly (some species can reproduce in 20 minutes!). They will typically go through an adjustment period (Lag phase of growth) followed by rapid growth (Log phase...more reproducing than dying) then level off where the amount of them reproducing = the amount dying (stationary phase - where we all want to be with our bacterial populations.) this can finally lead to a death phase (more dying than reproducing). This can be due to any number of reasons (lack of nutrients ect...). When you are adding these bacterial mixes you are introducing millions of organisms hopefully with everything they need. You only need one of the buggers to get them started since they poliferate so quickly.

Just of note: If you started with one bacteria that reproduced once every 20 minutes in a 24 hour period you would have a mass of bacteria that would weigh 14 kilograms! If you were able to keep giving them food ~ in 3 days you would have a mass of bacteria the size and weight of the Earth!

I hope that helps!

Cheers! :bigbounce
 
Rougiem

Rougiem

Ichthy Inquisitor
PREMIUM
Do not worry Woody and Kim....99% of them are good...really! :bigbounce

Cheers! :bigbounce
 
rckmtl

rckmtl

Active Member
Ah, the joy of bacteria. I find bacteria very ineresting. But i would not want an earthsized ball of them, even if they were mostly good!

So basiclly they live cuz they are tough and even if they are going to die off, they'll probably manage to reproduce first and the offspring will be adjusted. Good to know.
 
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