Shutting down pump to my bio-filter. How will it effect the good bacteria?

[Mucky_Waters]

I have been taking some waste water treatment course and recently learned that waste water treatment facilities, which also utilize nitrifying bacteria, use low level doses of chlorine for specific treatments within their active bacteria tanks. So no, it doesn't totally kill off the active bacteria, providing the doses are not too heavy.

 

[dieselplower]

I would agree a brief exposure to a low dose of chlorine would not totally kill all the bacteria. It eats away more and more the longer it is exposed. This is why I say rinsing biomaterials in chlorinated water is not a good idea. You will lose some bugs.

 

[JohnHuff]

I have been taking some waste water treatment course and recently learned that waste water treatment facilities, which also utilize nitrifying bacteria, use low level doses of chlorine for specific treatments within their active bacteria tanks. So no, it doesn't totally kill off the active bacteria, providing the doses are not too heavy.

What is the purpose of the chlorine?

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Of course they often use chlorine to treat waste water effluent before returning it to the ground or receiving waters, for the purpose of killing pathogens or parasites that may be present in the treated water, but that is after the treatment system. But within the treatment system itself they often use weak chlorine rinses to encourage controlled sloughing of biological slime growths in filter media, membranes, tank surfaces and plumbing. The biological slime growths can be pretty thick in waste water treatment facilities, and continuous sloughing is necessary, and encouraged, to prevent ponding and channeling (short-circuiting) through the system.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Randy, turns out what I learned in elementary school is no longer correct. Google bacteria and dormancy. Turns out bacteria can be dormant. However, I would still need to see some independent studies from the sellers to accept that their kind of bacteria stays dormant. Not that hard really for people peddling this stuff. All they need to do is to culture the contents of their bottle in a sterile environment, and no need even to do gas chromatography or DNA testing just basic bacteria testing would do.

Yes John, as I've stated before in these latest threads, I have no doubt that these companies can get some dormant bacteria in those bottles, simply because dormant bacteria are everywhere, both good ones and bad ones. So they are not false advertising. However, the reason people buy these bottled bacteria is because they are assuming that they are somehow lacking them in there pond. This is where the misconception is. The truth is they are more likely to have a much larger bacteria count, both active and dormant, in their ponds already then you could possible squeeze into an little bottle. And for sure the good (aerobic) ones in the bottle would all have to be dormant (at best) since there is no oxygen at all in the bottle, whereas a fairly high % of the bacteria in the pond would likely already be active since it's an open oxygenated environment. Add to that, that a hand full of dirt would most certainly contain more "active" bacteria then would be in that bottle, and you have to ask yourself, why on Earth would I spend good money on something that is everywhere already for free.

In post # 17 of this thread I ended the post by asking a question that nobody bother to try answering. But the answer to the question is: They were always present, they were just dormant.

 

[JohnHuff]

The biological slime growths can be pretty thick in waste water treatment facilities, and continuous sloughing is necessary.

Companies that sell K1 and other moving media do advertise the fact that bacteria is continuously sloughed off when they bang into each other in the reactor.

 

[dieselplower]

Companies that sell K1 and other moving media do advertise the fact that bacteria is continuously sloughed off when they bang into each other in the reactor.

Now wait a minute people were just saying and providing links that say the bacteria and biofilm is virtually indestructable and has to be powerwashed off. So which is it?

 

[Dave 54]

Now wait a minute people were just saying and providing links that say the bacteria and biofilm is virtually indestructable and has to be powerwashed off. So which is it?

Thghe K1 if in a filter that is powered by air grows bacteria which it has become impregnated with as it barrels about the filter the K1 knocks into the sides itself bioballs or bio chips each time this happens the bacteria is slouged off into the wayer colomn of the filter allowing the impregnated bacteria to create new bacteria and so on and so forth its how that tiype of filter works , the biochips however have a different job to do in that they become covered in tiny organisms that basically in laymans terms concentrate on eating anything left over so your K1, bio balls etc produce bacteria continuously day in day out, 24/7 365 days a year (if pond is heated).
Each time they collide a bit is knocked off allowing more bacteria to be created .


Dave

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Now wait a minute people were just saying and providing links that say the bacteria and biofilm is virtually indestructable and has to be powerwashed off. So which is it?

They certainly aren't indestructible, like most living organisms if you heat them enough they will die, and I'm sure strong solutions of certain chemicals like chlorine will kill them, but power washing would likely just remove a lot of them from whatever surface they are attached to. Now if you were to power wash some bio-media with very hot, strongly chlorinated water, I think you'd manage to kill a lot of them.
Most sources say that freezing kills these bacteria, but I'd take my own wild guess here and bet that freezing puts a lot of them into dormancy rather then killing them all. After all, some parts of the world freeze pretty hard and pretty deep for months on end, and these places don't seem to lack nitrifying bacteria. They are devoid of other types of bacteria in those places that are commonly found in the tropics, but they don't seem to lack these common nitrifying bacteria. That tells me that they must somehow survive freezing, most likely by going dormant.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

...you have to ask yourself, why on Earth would I spend good money on something that is everywhere already for free.

Bottled water. Need I say more?

 

[JohnHuff]

Bottled water. Need I say more?

I've lived in places where you can't drink tap water, even boiled tap water.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I've lived in places where you can't drink tap water, even boiled tap water.

Wait... people drink water? That just sounds weird. Water is for bathing, soda is for drinking.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Bottled water. Need I say more?

Actually there is a case to be made for bottled water. If your tap water quality is uncertain, and your bottled water quality is reliable.
I've been in lots of circumstances where the free tap water quality was foul or suspect, and I was thankful to have to good ole bottled water available.
Years ago I spent a few months traveling around the Philippines with my wife and infant son, whom I was very cautious about what I let him eat and drink. We packed our own large water container and big pot for boiling water where ever we went. My wife's sister also traveled with us and wasn't as cautious about drinking our boiled water because she lived in the Philippines and didn't think is was necessary. Well, guess who ended up getting a severe case of Montezuma's revenge.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I've been working up north in a camp for good part of this year, and the bottled drinking water is much preferable to trucked in tap water.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Yeah but that's also an argument for avoiding water and drinking soda.