# Azospirillium bacteria in fish effluent

**URL:** <https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/t/azospirillium-bacteria-in-fish-effluent/3950>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [April 8, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/t/azospirillium-bacteria-in-fish-effluent/3950 "2025-04-08T17:42:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![L4Livestock](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/ecae2f/32.png) [@L4Livestock](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/u/L4Livestock)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/t/azospirillium-bacteria-in-fish-effluent/3950/1 "2025-04-08T17:42:45Z")

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Howdy all!

I’ve been researching and building my aquaponics business for about a year now–I’ve built a functioning prototype, grew some test plants, etc, and have been demineralizing my fish effluent in a separate tank with a large airstone. In my research, I came across discussions about azospirillium bacteria, and how it has been used as soil additive/ inoculation in South America. My question for all is this: is it possible that azospirillium is active in fish effluent water? I know there are many, many types of bacteria present in demineralized effluent; is it possible that azospirillium is present as well?

Thanks in advance!

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**Author:** ![Rex](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Rex](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/u/Rex)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/t/azospirillium-bacteria-in-fish-effluent/3950/3 "2025-04-15T18:07:15Z")

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Without getting into details, I would say there is a strong possibility that Azospirillum bacteria are present in your system, but you would need to do some gene sequencing or a microbiome assay to confirm it. What pH and Temperature are you running? That could give some clues. That said, I’m not really sure how much it matters. In a healthy aquaponics system, your microbiome will naturally become quite diverse. Plants often influence their root zone microbiome through exudates, selecting/promoting for the microbes that benefit them - which is probably outside of our control.

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**Author:** ![potentponics](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c89c15/32.png) [@potentponics](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/u/potentponics)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 5:47am UTC](https://community.aquaponicsassociation.org/t/azospirillium-bacteria-in-fish-effluent/3950/5 "2026-01-29T05:47:15Z")

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So none of the microbial survey papers include any mention of azospirillium.

The only aquaponic related papers that mention azospirillium intentionally inoculated them with the microbe to try and improve production.