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Marlene

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Filamentous bacteria
Dec 06^th, 2011, 1:54pm

Hello! I'm glad I joined this forum and I hope you get help from its members. I work in the field of wastewater only for 3 months, I have a lot to learn and already I face a problem: I have a filamentous bacterium that has developed a lot lately, this bacteria is thin, the cells are well defined and sometimes forming bands. For more information try to attach some photos, which are not very clear because the microscope is not equipped with a camera device and pictures are made through eyepiece.
I mention I dont have phase contrast for a better investigation. This species can be: type 0914 or Microthrix parvicella?
PS. The temperature of wastewater is 15-16°C
http://marlene.sunphoto.ro/Filamentous_bacteria

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Re: Filamentous bacteria
Reply #1 - Dec 7^th, 2011, 12:59pm

Marlene:

Looked at your photos--Gram stains? Anyway, stains are used primarily for confirmation purposes. You must look at the live specimen using phase contrast microscope for several reasons: measure length and width of cells as well as entire filament, determine shape of cells ( id est, square, rectangular, oval, disc...)check for presence of cellular granules, and other morphological features. You cannot do this with stained specimens since the staining procedure distorts cells. Try to find someone close/ nearby that does this type of work. Dirk Seghers (DS) can do this for you at no cost to you--he lives in Denmark. I could do it for you but I'm in the US.

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Marlene

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Re: Filamentous bacteria
Reply #2 - Dec 8^th, 2011, 2:45am

Victor, thanks for information! It's hard to put into practice what you recomdat me because I dont have phase contrast. From what I could see in stains, filament cells are square, may discoid and often stains gram pozitiv. The evolution of this species is very strange: occurred in october when water temperature was 23 ° C (was present and Nocardia-abundance 3), reaching well developed mid-November to reach an abundance of 4 (according to manual control of causes of activated sludge bulking and, foaming and Other Solids Separation Problems), then abundance decreased to 3, then return to 4, where it remains today. Currently in the saples I have both Nocardia (abundance 2) and unknown species with abundance 4 (now the water temperature is 15-16 ° C). It is possible that while both live Nocardia and Microthrix parvicella? With this unknown species, began to grow the settling volumes after 30min , now reaching the volume of 800ml, almost without settling. Does this species is due to bad sedimentation? may be another cause?
I read somewhere that SVI value between 150 and 200 ml / g, means bulking at high flows; What exactly means this? (Now SVI values are between 130 and 150ml / g but I have and 2 values greater than 165, respectively 194ml / g)
PS. I am just biologist and do not understand some things about chemistry and technology. Cry

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Re: Filamentous bacteria
Reply #3 - Dec 8^th, 2011, 8:39pm

Marlene:

I am just a biologist as well but took it upon myself to learn as much as I can about the organisms that do the work in a wastewater treatment environment. You have an excellent manual by Dr. Jenkins, et al that can provide you with ways to deal with these nuisance organisms--though the manual lacks high quality photos/video in my opinion. You will rarely ever see individual cells in Microthrix even with a high quality phase contrast microscope at 1000x so this tells me that the filamentous bacteria that you are seeing in addition to Nocardia is something other than Microthrix. Officially, when the SVI goes above 150 then it is considered that you have bulking. The bulking can be due to filamentous bacteria (filamentous bulking) or nonfilamentous bulking such as zoogleal bulking and polysaccharide bulking. If you can, try and visit a nearby university and see if you can partner with microbiology professor to allow you to bring in samples and use their scopes or see if nearby wastewater treatment plants have a microscope of their own. You need to take the initiative in order to gain the knowledge and expertise.

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