AACT/ a closer look

[rootsnshoots]

Just throwing this thread out here.

I have no experience with microbiology or microscopes, but I just got one! I have been scoping some different things. My tropical fish tank water/bio-filter drip/ aquatic plants, mushroom spores/,mycelium, muscle tissue. All kinds of stuff. I want to get some stains and get educated on using a microscope to it's full advantage. Anyone with advice/literature please post.

I brewed a basic tea a few days ago. One handful of EWC in a strainer and two tablespoons of molasses in a 5 gal bucket. I scoped the tea about 15 min after brew and didn't see much life at all, mostly just what looked like pieces of broke down organic material. The next day I scoped it 20 hrs later and it was booming with small organisms. Mostly tons and tons of small rod shaped slow moving things i'd assume are bacteria, and then a ton of stuff I don't even know what. I also noticed a few larger guys with flagellum here and there. (Probably 1/3rd the amount I see from my biofilter) 4 hours later I scoped it again. The bacteria population seemed about the same (lots) and the stuff with flagellum, protozoa? had increased in population. At 400x I could see what i'm thinking are protozoa swimming around all over the place. Then I looked up to see I was overflowing a 55gal drum and finished the day moping ;)

I have taken some videos on my phone but they wont email them to myself? Hopefully ill post some pics/video soon.

Threads open.. Take it away farmers

 

[slap14]

Would love to see the video. Nice report on how AACT works and the time it takes. I love the tea's

Slap

 

[grower2]

Way cool. Did you by chance get one that can take pictures?

I'll go ahead and guess the larger stuff you see is fungi, as brewing tea is only supposed to make fungi grow in size, not in number from what I have heard.

Once you get a handle on what your seeing in the scope, it'd be cool to see how the different populations of bacteria/fungi, etc grow, and survive at different time intervals from something like 12 hours in up to 48 hours, maybe every two to four hours, or even every hour if you really wanted to get into it! And to avoid staying up 48 hours straight doing it every hour, you could vary what hour you take readings on different batches, for instance, one batch you could start at hour 12 and do every 4 hitting 16, 20, 24, 28, etc, and a different batch starting at hour 14 going four hour intervals to hit hour 18, 22, 26 etc, etc.

Anyways it sounds like a fun new toy!


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[organicozarks]

The rod shaped guys are bacteria. The flagellates with a "tail" are protozoa. You could also see some amoebas. They are blobs that ooze around very slowly. A good tea should have many, many different kinds of bacteria present.