coliform bacteria in water supply
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Topic: coliform bacteria in water supply
Posted By: djspadwill
Subject: coliform bacteria in water supply
Date Posted: October 15 2014 at 11:16am
| We got a mandatory boil notice this morning for our water here in Stansbury, they found coliform bacteria in 5 of nine samples on Monday. Our big tank is automatically topped off with RO water, which I found out does not remove the bacteria. Gary also did a water change on one of the small tanks yesterday. I can't find any information online about how coliform bacteria affects aquariums. Does anybody here have any information? |
Replies:
Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: October 15 2014 at 1:00pm
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Just did a quick look and wikipedia says: While coliforms themselves are not normally causes of serious illness, they are easy to culture, and their presence is used to indicate that other pathogenic organisms of fecal origin may be present. Such pathogens include disease-causing bacteria, viruses, or protozoa and many multicellular parasites. You are right, the RO filters won't capture much of the bacteria, so the proposed solution is a UV treatment (at least according to the guy selling whole house UV filters). I have no idea what bacteria or viruses could be in the water that affect marine life. Do you use a UV unit? Fat ------------- February 4: Winter Banquet at the Living Planet Aquarium Tickets: http://utahreefs.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=36 |
Posted By: Jimbo
Date Posted: October 15 2014 at 1:36pm
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Don't have an answer for you but I live in Clinton and we had E. Coli in the water supply back in August. I was worried about any effect on the tank also ( my wife says more so than the effect on her but that's not true ;) lol ). I used the 30 gallons of water I had made up for top-off and water changes with no ill effects. |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: October 16 2014 at 10:13am
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No worries. It does not survive in salt water. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: October 16 2014 at 10:40am
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Mark, I'm not too sure. 1974 studies in Japan showed that coliform didn't die because it was in seawater, but that it starved to death from lack of nutrients. And we all provide nutrients daily that can decompose to feed the bacteria. Additionally, it's not only the coliform that is of concern. Coliform is what is tested because it shows that other bacteria and virus can exist in the water supply and is fairly easy and economical to test. The presence of coliform is used as an indicator that other bacteria and virus have a suitable habitat to live in and MAY be present in the water supply. Hope this helps. ------------- February 4: Winter Banquet at the Living Planet Aquarium Tickets: http://utahreefs.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=36 |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: October 16 2014 at 12:48pm
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I'm not very smart, but isn't this what's called 'making a mountain out of a molehill'? Here is how I see it. Coliform bacteria probably exist in extremely minute amounts in the tap water we drink every day, but we are not affected by them. It's when those populations rise to unhealthy levels because a dead animal was offered as a breeding ground that we are told to boil the water, right? A freshwater bacterium is in a no-win situation when it goes through an RO Membrane, is suspended in water that has been stripped of essentially all non H2O molecules (water which tries to dissolve everything) and then goes into a reef aquarium where it not only has to quickly adjust to heavy osmotic pressure on it's cell walls but comes up against fierce competition for nutrients from some very specialized marine bacteria. Not to mention it will probably get eaten by a plethora of bacteria eating organisms that live in our tanks. Yeah, maybe there's a chance that a few coliform bacterium might survive for a few hours. Aloha  At times like this, food storage water comes in handy.  ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: October 16 2014 at 2:04pm
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Isn't this what's called 'making a mountain out of a molehill'? Yep. ------------- February 4: Winter Banquet at the Living Planet Aquarium Tickets: http://utahreefs.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=36 |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: October 16 2014 at 7:02pm
Yep  and now I'm 'beating a dead horse'.------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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