balance nutrient cycles
Natural balance, natural stability
Whether you're maintaining a 50-gallon aquarium, a 500-gallon water garden or a 50,000-gallon shrimp farm, you face the same basic challenges—eliminating detritus, maintaining proper nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, thwarting harmful algal blooms, providing excellent animal nutrition, preventing infectious disease, etc.
There are essentially two very different approaches that you may take when approaching these challenges: The first is intensive, heavily relying upon filtration equipment, water conditioners, dietary supplements, sterilizers, and so on. The second is biological, relying primarily upon natural ecological processes. "Natural" systems are not only cost effective, but they also are comparatively simpler to operate over the long term.
While there are numerous types of microbes that you could utilize in a naturalistic system, none are as versatile as purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB). PNSB are capable of living in freshwater or saltwater, with or without oxygen, in light or in total darkness. Depending upon environmental conditions, they may carry out nitrification, denitrification, nitrogen fixation, carbon fixation, polyphosphate metabolism, heterotrophy and photosynthesis as well as synthesis of carotenoids, antibiotics and phytohormones.
On account of their corrective environmental engineering, these primordial microorganisms serve as Nature's "re-set" button. And, increasingly, professional aquaculturists and horticulturists are recognizing their potential for promoting a balanced and stable captive ecosystem. In the simplest of terms, PNSB help you establish the healthiest aquatic habitat for the least amount of time, money and worries!
Abbas Alloul et al. Purple bacteria as added-value protein ingredient in shrimp feed: Penaeus vannamei growth performance, and tolerance against Vibrio and ammonia stress. Aquaculture, 2020.
Overall, this study demonstrated the potential of PNSB as nutritious feed ingredient for shrimp. This can contribute to circular economy, as PNSB enable resource recovery from wastewater.
Julian Sprung and J. Charles Delbeek. The Reef Aquarium, Vol. 3: Science, Art, and Technology, 2005.
Purple non-sulfur photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) may be a useful food for such notoriously difficult creatures as Dendronephthya and other filter feeders that specialize on eating microscopic plankton.
M. Sakarika et al. Purple non-sulphur bacteria and plant production: benefits for fertilization, stress resistance
and the environment. Microbial biotechnology, 2019.
Remarkable features of PNSB include the accumulation of polyphosphate, the production of pigments and vitamins and the production of plant growth-promoting substances (PGPSs).
Jiaqi Chen et al. Photosynthetic bacteria-based technology is a potential alternative to meet sustainable wastewater treatment requirement?Aquaculture, 2020.
Since the study on PSB wastewater purification began in 1971, feasibility studies have long demonstrated the ability of PSB involved in wastewater treatment.
What do experts say about PNS bacteria?
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