True aquatic biodiversity

A customer of Aquazolla with whom I was recently discussing the principle of ZollaBox Start and microbial biodiversity was very surprised to learn that the microbiota they contain is not made up solely of bacteria.

Indeed, all aquarium literature reduces aquarium microbes to just a handful of bacterial species, supposedly only responsible for the nitrogen cycle.
This allows the seller to market the magic vial, the laboratory-cloned strain, made up of THE useful and magical bacterium.

An unsuspected biodiversity

For a long time, it was believed that the microbial biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems was quite limited, with bacteria and a few viruses. At that time, aquarium culture, except for the two or three precious bacteria identified as ensuring the nitrogen cycle, feared all microbes. Some even avoided putting their hands in the water to "introduce nothing."

It was also long written that the aquatic environment, since it is anaerobic (without air), hosted bacteria and viruses, but almost no fungi.

Only in recent decades has a technological revolution opened our eyes to the poverty of our knowledge: high-throughput DNA sequencing.
Where once water samples were cultured in laboratories to identify species, they began to be analyzed based on the DNA they contained.
And whether a drop of water or a pinch of soil is put into the machine, it has been discovered that they contain a staggering number of microbial species, more than 95% of which are completely unknown to us! The machine finds DNA proving that tens of thousands of species are present in the pinch or drop, and we know only a few, which is why we were unlikely to find them…

The case of aquatic fungi

Among these microbes, there are bacteria, of course, viruses of which 99% are essential to the life of other species, but also… fungi.
Just before the year 2000, there were more than 600 species of aquatic fungi, no less! But in 2006, the number was closer to 3,400 different species. In 2007, it was announced that the number is unknown, but the lowest estimate would be more than 8,000 species. Only a few are somewhat known, but still poorly described, with largely mysterious lifestyles. The rest is a vast, very vast field of ignorance!

These fungi, these viruses, these bacteria are a world yet to be explored. And choosing a handful of species to put in a vial to claim to give life to an aquatic ecosystem is simply lunatic. And presumptuous, especially: this ecosystem needs thousands of species about which we know nothing!
This is the principle of the ZollaBox Start. To have maximum microbial biodiversity, rather than turning to the laboratory, it is much more effective to turn to those directly involved: those who carry these microbes within them. And thus the aquatic micro-fauna.

A simple pellet of daphnia contains all this. That of an ostracod as well, but with still different microbial species. And the Blackworm, which is not a crustacean, leaves in its droppings and various secretions strains of other kinds.
And there is no need to know their names to reap the benefits.
For example, it should be known that plant waste (dead leaves, wood, etc.) only decomposes in water through the action of fungi. They are the only ones able to attack lignin to recycle it, thus allowing water lice, Blackworm, ostracods, or Tubifex to feed on it.

Fungi are irreplaceable in aquariums as in ponds

A dead leaf eaten by water lice or by the indispensable bladder snail looks like lace. Why? Because aquatic fungi have quickly attacked the cellulose. Water lice then ate it. But the leaf veins are harder, made of stronger cellulose chains and lignin. The fungi’s work takes longer, and water lice limit themselves to what is edible first.

Fungi, aquatic or not, can do one thing no other microbe can: break down plant lignin. No biological cycle can do without them. Without them, dead branches would never decompose. They are an essential passage.

Better balance aquarium cycles through low-tech

Introducing one or two strains of bacteria into an aquarium is not giving life to the water. It is just doing laboratory chemistry, not creating an ecosystem.
Life is infinitely complex, and we know only a tiny part of it. It is estimated that at the current pace, it would take humans 1,000 years to describe all the species of fungi whose existence we are discovering today. Yet, without being able to name them, without knowing it, we live with them. And even thanks to them and the complex microbiotas they form with bacteria, viruses, amoebas, protozoa, algae…

There is no need to name and describe all microbial species to benefit from their role in aquarium cycles. It is enough to introduce them en masse, without selection, with their complexity and incredible diversity. And that is what the ZollaBox Start allows.

No fish, no aquatic animal can live in sterile water.
Giving life to the water should be the first concern of an aquarist, as it conditions everything else.

Ultimately, this is the art of the natural aquarium.
It is giving life to the water rather than endlessly trying to treat fish that a lifeless, too sterile water makes sick.