Jackson
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Culturing of a red flourecent bacteria/algae
I have a saltwater aquarium and I’ve noticed that there is a film of bacteria or algae growing on places on the rock and glass as well as some
filter media. It glows red under my crappy black light. I was wondering how I could grow it. I have access to pretty clean salt water (filtered
through a bunch of filters and pumped from off shore) that the local university’s marine biology department uses. Nothing grows in it even after
shining a light at it for a few weeks, until water from my tank is added, and then algae grows everywhere, so it should be clean. My question is,
would this be a good media to try and culture the bacteria in after autoclaving it, or should I add nutrients to it? Also, the organism only has been
growing in surfaces, the water doesn’t glow, only the surface. Could this be a problem for growing it?
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Ubya
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of course you need nutrients, water is just a medium, you need to know if what you have is algae or bacteria though, growing conditions are different
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mayko
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It sounds like it supports growth well once inoculated. If nothing else works, you could sterilize the aquarium water that's already working and use
that.
You might be able to induce a free-floating phenotype by agitation with a stirrer/shaker. Otherwise, the carrying capacity of your bioreactor will be
area-limited rather than volume-limited. You might be able to overcome this by adding plates of glass, parallel and separated by ~inch, and rotate
them out & squeegee to harvest. It might take some engineering to make sure that light & medium circulated to the inner plates.
al-khemie is not a terrorist organization
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Jackson
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Thanks for the responses. I am observing where it is growing in the tank the best as to attempt to figure out the best growth conditions, like
lighting levels and flow. Could I innoculate with a piece of filter medium that is covered with it, or would taking a swab or something like that be
better? Thanks in advance.
[Edited on 3/4/2019 by Jackson]
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Tsjerk
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Is it red without uv? Do you notice any secondary structures in the growth? Could you take a picture? I have some red stuff growing in my sink, I have
a good idea of what it is, but pictures speak books.
Mine is https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/serratia-marcesce...
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Jackson
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It’s red in certain places where it is thick enough, but most of it is a thin tanish red film. It does not glow without UV but does strongly glow. I
will post pictures when I get home.
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Nate
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If you don't mind me asking what's in the salt water aquarium? Wanted to see if I could try to replicate your setup to see if I could grow it.
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Tsjerk
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Quote: Originally posted by Nate  | | If you don't mind me asking what's in the salt water aquarium? Wanted to see if I could try to replicate your setup to see if I could grow it.
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Apparently this bacterium grows anywhere where it doesn't have competition of too much else. It can grow on minimal carbon sources and on about any
carbon source. If it is what I think it is at least. Detergents form a selection pressure for the species I'm talking about, as do minimal growth
conditions.
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Jackson
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There used to be a couple corals, but I went on vacation and the person house sitting forgot to follow my instructions to refill the tank with
distilled water, which lead to the salinity getting to high and killing of the corals. There are four snails and 5 hermit crabs as well as 3
peppermint shrimp. There is also a single clownfish. Maybe the red florcencent bacteria/algae is zooxanthellae from the coral living outside of it
with coralline algae. The coralline algae, which is similar in color to the colonies I see, could provide the structure and visible color. The
zooxanthelle could be responsible for the red glow. This probably isn’t the case though because I had no red corals in the tank. It’s a 20 gallon
long tank, with a basic carbon filter, at 78 f. There’s about 10 lbs of live rock and 5 lbs of live sand. Also, a smaller piece of live rock that I
got from my friends tank has a patch on it that glows green under UV.
Also, my tank has been having a large algal bloom since when it lost water while I was on vacation, it got hotter than normal and the algae had a
chance to take hold.
[Edited on 3/5/2019 by Jackson]
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Nate
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If you don't mind me asking what's in the salt water aquarium? Wanted to see if I could try to replicate your setup to see if I could grow it.
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Harristotle
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Chlorophyll glows red under uv light. Try pointing a 405nm uv laser at a plant, or better, an alga. Are you sure it isn't this?
Cheers, H.
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