Moringa and Water Filtration
30 views
Skip to first unread message
Aakriti Lakshman
Sep 5, 2017, 7:39:34 PM9/5/17
to DIYbio
Hey! I'm conducting research on using moringa seeds for water filtration. I have a few questions and was wondering if anyone could help me out. (Click here for a more in-depth summary)
First off, I need a turbidity meter. However, I don't have access to one and don't have the money to buy one either. I only need it for a week. Any ideas on how to get my hands on one??
Also, I need help distinguishing bacteria. I'm going to put various bacterium found in water with fecal contamination into distilled water and check how filtration affects the growth of bacteria. After plating, however, how do I find which bacteria is which?
Abizar Lakdawalla
Sep 5, 2017, 8:51:02 PM9/5/17
to diy...@googlegroups.com
In the US it is quite cheap to perform 16S sequencing on a colony (about US$10 or less depending on number of samples). 16S tells you the bug by comparison to 16S databases.
A turbidity meter is relatively easy to make, an LED or laser (pointer) and an Light dependent resistor at 90 degrees to each other. The resistance of the LDR changes based on how much light is scattered into the LDR. If completely clear no light should reach, etc.
--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups DIYbio group. To post to this group, send email to diy...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/diybio?hl=en
Learn more at www.diybio.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DIYbio" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to diy...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/diybio.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diybio/5d3c5108-feed-4ebe-a0fa-dec460ee6558%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Skyler Gordon
Sep 5, 2017, 8:54:06 PM9/5/17
to DIYbio
First and foremost, hello. Not sure if this is all going to help, but maybe I can point you in the right direction.
If you don't have a turbidity meter, you can try shining some light through it and trying to gauge what is coming through on the other side. Turbidity is caused by colloids. The size of these particles scatters the light, but depending on your ratio and what not... calculating what's actually in the water could be tricky with that type of analysis. Also, this isn't going to include non-colloidal or partially colloidal molecules (like DNA). Remember that these smaller molecules don't exactly follow your basic ideas of thermodynamics (Brownian motion).
I guess this is going to be part of your bacteria and filtering size problem, but I'll let you decide what's important.
When it comes to trying to find out what's in your 'bioreactor', I'd like to remind you that waste water treatment is usually performed in both aerobic and anaerobic steps. This could be to just reduce the biomass or maybe just use up all the good electron donors/acceptors, not quite sure.
For determining exactly what species, strain or strain sub-type might be in your culture, that's going to be a tougher problem. You can try to find more general ideas using solid media to plate and then get more detailed by finding what they do (or more particularly, what they do not) eat, but something becomes lost in translation. I would recommend using a microscope and trying to get a feel for what your particular batch has in it. You're gonna need a hemocytometer, if you want to get your bacterial size right.
I'm not sure how your seeds filter water, but best of luck and I hope this helps.
-SG
If you don't have a turbidity meter, you can try shining some light through it and trying to gauge what is coming through on the other side. Turbidity is caused by colloids. The size of these particles scatters the light, but depending on your ratio and what not... calculating what's actually in the water could be tricky with that type of analysis. Also, this isn't going to include non-colloidal or partially colloidal molecules (like DNA). Remember that these smaller molecules don't exactly follow your basic ideas of thermodynamics (Brownian motion).
I guess this is going to be part of your bacteria and filtering size problem, but I'll let you decide what's important.
When it comes to trying to find out what's in your 'bioreactor', I'd like to remind you that waste water treatment is usually performed in both aerobic and anaerobic steps. This could be to just reduce the biomass or maybe just use up all the good electron donors/acceptors, not quite sure.
For determining exactly what species, strain or strain sub-type might be in your culture, that's going to be a tougher problem. You can try to find more general ideas using solid media to plate and then get more detailed by finding what they do (or more particularly, what they do not) eat, but something becomes lost in translation. I would recommend using a microscope and trying to get a feel for what your particular batch has in it. You're gonna need a hemocytometer, if you want to get your bacterial size right.
I'm not sure how your seeds filter water, but best of luck and I hope this helps.
-SG
--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups DIYbio group. To post to this group, send email to diy...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to diybio+un...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/diybio?hl=en
Learn more at www.diybio.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DIYbio" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to diybio+un...@googlegroups.com.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages