These photomicrographs were taken from
wastewater samples. Bright Field, Dark Field, and
Phase contrast were used. Most of the
objectives used were 400x or 1000x.
Come take a closer look at the amazing
world under the microscope!
There is quite a variety. It is easy to see how color, size, shape, firm,
weak, compact, round, irregular, open or lacy fit when you have a number of
pictures with floc in a variety of states.
This was taken at 40x Dark Field
The floc are very small, weak and will cause lots of TSS problems and
possibly use of polymers in a clarifier
This was taken at 40x Dark Field
The floc are small, starting to get a little more compact and will
cause less TSS problems.
200x Bright Field
floc are larger, more firm, compact and brown
200x Bright Field
young floc, mostly clear, zooglea in the upper left corner, some dark
brown floc in right center
40x Dark Field
Nice firm, compact floc a little bit irregular but no real problems,
clear spaces between floc, no TSS problems, will settle nicely
Young, clear floc, 100x Phase contrast
some zooglea present and some single celled bacteria present
Very open, irregular lacy floc
Very small tiny floc, will cause TSS problems
Nice firm, gold, compact, rounded floc
Nice firm, gold, compact, rounded floc
Weak, dispersed, irregular floc with a little bit of filament problems,
mostly clear, some gold
Younger to middle age floc, some clear, some turning gold, firm, irregular
and a bit open
very small, dispersed weak floc
very small, dispersed weak floc, lots of single celled bacteria
Weak, dispersed floc, lots of TSS, Tetrads present
Many tetrads, see the small clusters of 2-4 cells, usually found in
papermills with nitrogen deficiency, but can be found in other plants with
nutrient deficiency
Again, high levels of Tetrads, some algae also present
Nice firm floc, some a bit young but developing into round, firm gold floc
Very young, mostly single celled bacteria, high TSS
Weak, diffuse open irregular floc, younger
Very small, weak floc, a few larger floc starting to form
but a long way to go to desirable
Tetrads
Tetrads
Weak, open lacy irregular floc
this will be harder to
dewater and may use more polymer, a rotifer present though which may
indicate at one time the floc was older but recen higher loading and
drifting towards a young floc
Weak, open, irregular lacy floc
Gram stain of tetrads and zoogleal colonies
nutrient
deficient
Young to medium aged floc
some clear smaller floc, but
some nice round compact golden floc developing
![[Under Construction]](undercon.gif){kind=small}
This page
under construction