Koi Fish Information Centre

Carmen,
I’m not sure about these so-called digestive aid bacteria since I’ve never done any research or reading about them (I’m down here in Southern Louisiana where we put hot sauce and lots of spices on just about everything so I’ve never needed any added digestive bacteria.. lol) and whether they will “live” outside of their normal environment (your intestines) but I do know that nitrifying bacteria need ammonia and oxygen to live. I know some bacteria will live in a dry environment and then become active under the right conditions (aka yeast) and nitrifying bacteria are an airborne bacteria in nature but there’s a big difference between airborne bacteria and packaged products. In airborne conditions, there’s just the right amount of moisture, plenty of O2 and there’s an ammonia source from the nitrogen cycle that exists in all of nature.
It took Marineland ten years to develop the original Bio-Spira and their patent will be expiring soon.. I’m guessing in the next couple of years since the product came out in 2002 so it’s at least six years old and most patents are only good for ten years. They were never really able to get it introduced to the mass marketplace due to the cost and other inhibiting factors associated with keeping it refrigerated during shipping and at retail levels. I would imagine that over the past ten years, while Bio-Spira held the patent on the hibernation method of keeping the nitrifying bacteria “alive” throughout the shipping and distribution process, all of the other so-called bacteria-in-a-bottle companies would have been figuring out a way to keep theirs alive without the need for refrigeration and NONE of them have done so… so I’m not sure how Marineland could have finally figured out a way to do it but I guess anything is possible so I’ll wait and see some published reports from hobbyists and/or peer reviewed studies to come out. Here’s a long interview with Dr. Timothy Hovenac, the lead scientist that helped develop Bio-Spira… http://aquamaniacs.net/forum/cms_view_article.php?aid=36
The fact that they are releasing the “new” Bio-Spira under Tetra’s brand name makes me think it will just be another bottle of JUNK that they try to sell unsuspecting newbies. Of course, Bio-Spira did learn it was not just the nitrosomonas bacteria but the nitrospira and nitrosospira bacteria that started the nitrogen cycle so maybe, just maybe, if they do have some of these proper bacteria in a bottle, it might work but I’m very, very skeptical at this point. Why would they not use their own name? They already have really good brand recognition, with many hobbyists, as the only product that works as advertised so I’m not sure why they’d give that up… haven’t they ever heard of “New Coke”? I’d like to see what Dr. Timothy Hovenac has to say about the new formula of Bio-Spira.
I know the other so-called bacteria-in-a-bottles do not work. For example, with the original Bio-Spira, you could add it one day and then start adding ammonia at up to 5ppm the next day and the tank would “cycle” properly (ammonia>nitrite>nitrate). I’ve read many posts from hobbyists who tried this experiment with the other bacteria-in-a-bottle products and NOTHING happened to the added ammonia the next day because there simply were NO live bacteria in the bottles. Eventually the tank would cycle but that would happen due to the airborne nitrifying bacteria eventually inhabiting the tank and growing large colonies. Most of the other bacteria-in-a-bottles did not even have the proper nitrifying bacteria.
Hey… now that’s something we could do. Bottle air and sell it! Just kidding of course since the bottled air would eventually run out of O2 and ammonia as the nitrifying bacteria live and they would eventually die off. Hey, wait a minute…. we could sell bottles of air that aren’t sealed so the nitrifying bacteria have a constant supply of fresh air and suspended ammonia so they would live. Or we could sell bottled air that has to be kept refrigerated to put the nitrifying bacteria into hibernation.
Oh well.. I don’t have the patent yet so I’m making this special licensing offer to anyone else. You are welcome to use my idea of selling “GoldLenny’s 100% Natural Air” complete with suspended nitrifying bacteria, oxygen and ammonia for use in jump starting the nitrogen cycle in aquariums.. I do want a 5% royalty though!
I guess this belongs more on my Rants & Raves blog. LOL
On a side note, since I don’t have 5-10 empty 10G tanks sitting around, maybe someone out here can go out and buy a bottle of each of the current so-called bacteria-in-a-bottle products and try this simple experiment. Set up the tanks running with a filter, add the product, wait the prescribed time period and then add 5ppm of ammonia and test it the next day to see if any of the ammonia was converted through the nitrogen cycle.
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com

Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society