C'mon... are you serious?

I meant when you add fresh to your DT. It should be pretty easy to tell its fresh. It has that oily swirl look to it. Dont tell me I have the only tank that does it.

 

LMAO..............................that is stellar! Luna

 

There are lots of things that can cause that "oily swirl". Temp differences will do it also.

 

here is a link to a process for long term storage Viable dried bacteria produced by drying in the presence of trehalose and divalent cation - Patent 6610531

 

It is the difference in density (or baricity) of the 2 solutions that causes the swirl that you see. I see the same thing every day when I mix spinal fluid with sugar water. How do I get the spinal fluid? Let's just say that it involves a really long needle.

 

So if I am not supposed to drink RO/DI water because it has bacteria, does that mean my tap water is not safe to drink either? ...and you say the water picks up bacteria from the air? So thats not safe to breath?

 

i didnt mean to get this thread so far off topic. thats not what i meant. im a diver and get lots of seawater in my mouth. i was just pointing out that a $30.00 refractometer is a way better method to test your water as opposed to putting water from an unknown source in your mouth. then last night people where bashing me for saying that bacteria can be dried and stored for very long periods of time.(and they can) otherwise i would of let it go.

 

There may be minimal endospores created by the bacteria that would survive in the salt that would be able to regenerate a new cell, but it's not a great chance in such a harsh environment.

 

If you just took microbiology you should be well aware that salt would provide one of the most corrosive environments on earth--making it absolutely and completely incapable of harboring bacteria.

This is why meats are cured with salt. No bacteria lives within salt. They might form spores that could tolerate it for some time, but I don't know that nitrobacter, nitrosomonas, and the other nitrifying bacteria are spore-producing.

Lot of misinformation on this forum lately.

 

ok i may have been wrong about the bacteria in most salt mixes. i called my friend that owns a lfs in pascagoula,ms (where i get my salt) i asked him and this is where i screwed up. my salt comes from a company in veitnam called d.s.s. or something like that. its just in a white 5gal bucket and it has a small packet in it with dried bacteria that i add with my mix in r/o water. i thought that was the norm for all highend salt mixes. ill get mor info on the company asap and will start a thread about it. im so sorry for the misinformation. i was arguing that bacteria could be dried and reanamated with the right process. anyways ill post that thread soon. here is some good info on trace elements from a study on salt mixes.Salt Mix Comparison