BIOFILTER STARTERS
Sent: December 21, 1999
From: <Keith.Rideout@mi.mun.ca>
To: <aqua-l@killick.ifmt.nf.ca>
QUESTION:
What products are commercially available for 'jump-starting' biofilters?
In particular, I am interested in bacterial cultures as well as
'pre-starters' that simulate fish waste. I am familiar with the
Bacta-Pur products distributed by Aquatic Ecosystems but would like
to see what else is out there.
Keith Rideout
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COMMENTS 1:
Allen Tweten of Aquatech Environmental Systems has some experience with
hatcheries using Bacta-Pur to kickstart filters. He understands the
problems and is focused on application in colder water regimes.
E-mail: aquatech@seaside.net
Campbell
E-mail: cmcampbell@canada.com
***************
COMMENTS 2:
I have tried several commercial products. Most of them give good results
when applied in fresh water. In seawater, however, the results are very
poor. A product may work at one time and fail at another time. Also in
replicated experiments the variability was so high that this could not be
used for scientific work. Due to this low reproducibility we were forced
to inoculate our biofilters with existing biofilters which gave much
better results.
About one year ago we contacted the Laboratory of Microbial Ecology
and Technology at the Faculty of Agriculture and Applied Biological
Sciences in Gent. They culture a nitrifying culture named ABIL aqua which
consist of both ammonium oxidizers and nitrite oxidizers. The
product can be applied in aquaria, intensive fish culture systems, ... at
a dose of 100 ml per m^3.
The activity of the product is equal to the removal of 1 g N/g
VSS.day.
We tested the product in several experiments. The product is doing
very well: biofilters are fully operational in about 4 days. All our
experiments (seawater) are now started with this material and we have
stopped to use existing biofilters to inoculate new ones. If you are
interested in the product please contact the Laboratorium of Microbial
Ecology and Technology.
Inge.Vanhauteghem@rug.ac.be
Geert.Rombaut@rug.ac.be
Philippe Dhert
Lab. of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center
E-mail: philippe.dhert@rug.ac.be