HA! I think I have figured out exactly how this product works.
The combination of bacterias DO NOT metabolize the products of the nitrogen cycle, they utilize them in respiration, reproduction, and they use the individual chemicals as electron donors in their own life cycle and metabolism while breaking down other proteins/enzymes.
I took down all these tidbits of info, and as I neared the end, I realized I still had not seen any direct connection to their interactions towards the nitrogen cycle chemicals. So I had to dig deeper. Either way, I was still curious as to how my tank cycled in < a week...
After realizing that most of these utilize products in the nitrogen cycle during reductase reactions as the nitrogen cycle chemicals act as electron donors, I still wonder what other sort of interactions there are between these bacteria strains and surrounding enzymes and proteins that are present in aquatic systems...
But please excuse the length of notes here, I'll post other interesting things as I find them, this was the easy to find interesting tidbits~
This seems to be one of the best resources about the genus:
http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/Bacillus.html
Group 1 is:
Bacillus subtillis;
Bacillus sphaericus;
Bacillus megatarium; and
Bacillus licheniformis.
Group 2 is:
Enterobacter sakazakii; and
Bacillus coagulans.
Group 3 is:
Bacillus cereus.
Group 4 is:
Bacillus pasteurii;
Bacillus cirroflagellosus.
Group 5 is:
Bacillus pumilus.
and optionally with the enzymes Cellulase, Amylase, Protease, Lipase, and optionally with selected pancreatic preparations, and kidney microbia compositions.
About Bacillus:
Early attempts at classification of Bacillus species were based on two characteristics: aerobic growth and endospore formation.This resulted in tethering together many bacteria possessing different kinds of physiology and occupying a variety of habitats. Hence, the heterogeneity in physiology, ecology, and genetics, made it difficult to categorize the genus Bacillus or to make generalizations about it.
Endospores are so named because they are formed intacellularly, although they are eventually released from this mother cell or sporangium as free spores. Endospores have proven to be the most durable type of cell found in Nature, and in their cryptobiotic state of dormancy they can remain viable for extremely long periods of time, perhaps millions of years.
There is great diversity of physiology among the aerobic sporeformers, not surprising considering their recently-discovered phylogenetic diversity. Their collective features include degradation of most all substrates derived from plant and animal sources, including cellulose, starch, pectin, proteins, agar, hydrocarbons, and others; antibiotic production; nitrification; denitrification; nitrogen fixation; facultative lithotrophy; autotrophy; acidophily; alkaliphily; psychrophily; thermophily; and parasitism. Endospore formation, universally found in the group, is thought to be a strategy for survival in the soil environment, wherein these bacteria predominate. Aerial distribution of the dormant spores probably explains the occurrence of aerobic sporeformers in most habitats examined.
They are found growing over a range of pH from 2 to 11. In the laboratory, under optimal conditions of growth, Bacillus species exhibit generation times of about 25 minutes.
The variability of cell wall structure that is common in many Gram-positive bacteria does not occur in the genus Bacillus. The vegetative cell wall of almost all Bacillus species is made up of a peptidoglycan containing meso-diaminopimelic acid (DAP). (The cell walls of Sporosarcina pasteurii and S. globisporus, contain lysine in the place of DAP.) This is the same type of cell wall polymer that is nearly universal in Gram-negative bacteria, i.e., containing DAP as the diamino acid in position 3 of the tetrapeptide.
Mature spores have no detectable metabolism, a state that is described as cryptobiotic. They are highly resistant to environmental stresses such as high temperature (some endospores can be boiled for several hours and retain their viability), irradiation, strong acids, disinfectants, etc. Although cryptobiotic, they retain viability indefinitely such that under appropriate environmental conditions, they germinate into vegetative cells. Endospores are formed by vegetative cells in response to environmental signals that indicate a limiting factor for vegetative growth, such as exhaustion of an essential nutrient. They germinate and become vegetative cells when the environmental stress is relieved. Hence, endospore-formation is a mechanism of survival rather than a mechanism of reproduction.
Due to the resistance of their endospores to environmental stress, as well as their long-term survival under adverse conditions, most aerobic sporeformers are ubiquitous and can be isolated from a wide variety of sources. Hence, the occurrence of sporeforming bacteria in a certain environment is not necessarily an indication of habitat
Denitrifiers: include Bacillus azotoformans, Bacillus cereus, Brevibacillus laterosporus, Bacillus licheniformis, Sporosarcina pasteurii, Geobacillus stearothermophilus (over half the type species reduce NO3 to NO2). Although Bacillus species are common in agricultural soils, and they are attributed to participate in wasteful denitrification (conversion of the farmer's expensive NO3 fertilizers to volatile N2O or N2) their exact role in the economy of this processes has not been clarified. A related process conducted by some Bacillus species, called dissimilatory nitrate reduction, reduces NO3 to ammonia (NH3), but this is not considered denitrification.
The Genus Bacillus © 2009 Kenneth Todar, PhD (
http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/Bacillus.html)
Little tidbits about each bacteria, only a couple from the book above.
Bacillus subtillis
Bacillus subtilis uses glutamine as the best source of nitrogen. In the absence of glutamine, alternative nitrogen sources such as ammonium can be used. Ammonium utilization involves the uptake of the gas or the ammonium ion, the synthesis of glutamine by the glutamine synthetase and the recycling of the glutamate by the glutamate synthase. In this work, ammonium transport in B. subtilis was studied. At high ammonium concentrations, a large fraction of the ammonium is present as ammonia, which may enter the cell via diffusion.
Depletion of carbon, nitrogen, or phosphorous causes the process of sporulation to begin
the ability to form a tough, protective endospore, allowing the organism to tolerate extreme environmental conditions
B. subtilis spores can survive the extreme heating that is often used to cook food
B. subtilis can divide symmetrically to make two daughter cells (binary fission), or asymmetrically, producing a single endospore that is resistant to environmental factors such as heat, acid, and salt, and which can persist in the environment for long periods of time
The bacteria can make ATP in anaerobic conditions via butanediol fermentation as well as nitrate ammonification. Bacillus subtilis can use nitrite or nitrate as a terminal acceptor of electrons. Bacillus subtilis contains two unique nitrate reductases. One is used for nitrate nitrogen assimilation and the other is used for nitrate respiration. However, there is only one nitrite reductase that serves both purposes. Nitrate reductase reduces nitrate to nitrite in nitrate respiration, which is then reduced to ammonia by nitrite reductase. Bacillus subtilis is different from other facultative aerobes in that it undergoes fermentation without external acceptors of electrons (Nakano 1998).
when carbon-, nitrogen- and phosphorus-nutrient levels fall below the bacterium's optimal threshold, it produces spores. Scientists have demonstrated that Bacillus subtilis concurrently produces antibiotics and spores
can convert explosives into harmless compounds of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water
plays a role in safe radionuclide waste [e.g. Thorium (IV) and Plutonium (IV)] disposal with the proton binding properties of its surfaces
Bacillus sphaericus
Bacillus sphaericus is a naturally occurring soil bacterium that can effectively kill mosquito larvae present in water
Environmental persistence of B. sphaericus varies depending on the formulation used and environmental conditions. Breakdown of B. sphaericus usually takes several weeks but residual levels have been shown to persist in some waters for up to nine months
The inability of the bacteria to metabolize carbohydrates requires that they be grown on proteinaceous media.
The specific requirement for acetate suggests that B. sphaericus might have developed the ability to grow particularly well on acetate, so that the bacteria can rapidly use a nutrient which may become available in soil close to decaying plant materials. So when a medium containing only acetate as the major carbon source was inoculated with pasteurized soil. B. sphaericus would grow most rapidly, being an efficient user of acetate. They would out grow competing microorganism which metabolise this substrate slowly.
Different substrates used were glucose, glucose-6-phosphate, fructose-1,6-diphosphate, glycerol, pyruvate, citrate, isocitrate, 2-oxoglutarate, malate and acetate. The unit of respiration rate is defined as the ppm of oxygen taken up per min at 30°C per mg protein.
(so ya, they didn't do the testing IN SOIL!!) lol I know what you were thinking....
Advantages of B. sphaericus over other larvicidal bacterial strains like Bacillus thuringiensis var israelensis is that it can grow even in polluted water (Baumann et al., 1991). The nutritional requirement of B. spherical are very simple but carbohydrate metabolism is not yet well studied.
Three of these strains grew and sporulated in the minimal medium containing only phosphate buffer (pH 7.2), 15 mM ammonium sulphate, inorganic salts and sodium acetate as a sole source of carbon, and 13 strains grew and sporulated when the above medium was supplemented with biotin and thiamine.
Bacillus megatarium
Bacillus megaterium is able to survive in some extreme conditions such as desert environments due to the spores it forms.
In order to accommodate former members of the genus Bacillus covered in this chapter, its title has been changed to "Gram-positive aerobic or facultative endospore-forming bacteria".
They are found growing over a range of pH from 2 to 11. In the laboratory, under optimal conditions of growth, Bacillus species exhibit generation times of about 25 minutes
Bacillus licheniformis
It can exist in spore form to resist harsh environs, or in a vegetative state when conditions are good.
B. licheniformis produces a variety of extracellular enzymes that are associated with the cycling of nutrients in nature. It is an apathogenic soil organism that is mostly associated with plant and plant materials in nature. Although it is most common to isolate this bacterium from is soil, it is believed that B. licheniformis can actually be isolated from practically anywhere since it produces highly resistant endospores that are spread around with dust.
Enterobacter sakazaki
Enterobacter cloacae is used in biological control of plant diseases
Enterobacter can be found on human skin and plants as well as in soil, water, sewage, intestinal tracts of humans and animals, and some dairy products (Health Canada).
Bacillus coagulans
Some research in animals (but not yet in humans) shows that Bacillus coagulans might increase immune system function and decrease harmful bacteria.
Bacillus coagulans is a species of beneficial bacteria, or probiotics. As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), probiotics are live microorganisms, which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host
Some data found here, resulted in transformation of progesterone by marine bacteria(
http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-prev ... ze=largest)
Bacillus cereus
The mechanism and the reason for NO production in nitrate-respiring B. cereus are unknown, but the amounts of NO released were in a similar range as in the denitrifying P. aeruginosa and thus may be of similar environmental importance
B. cereus bacteria are faculative anaerobes, and like other members of the genus Bacillus can produce protective endospores
B. cereus is often used as a food additive as a probiotic in animals to combat Salmonella and other microorganisms
Bacillus pasteurii
Microcosm experiments were performed to identify the influence of bacterial cell surfaces on the morphology, mineralogy, size and solubility of CaCO3 precipitated in response to the enzymatic hydrolysis of urea in an artificial groundwater (AGW) by the ureolytic bacteria, Bacillus pasteurii
Bacillus cirroflagellosus
Activity in antifungal areas
Bacillus pumilus
Bacillus pumilus is used for alkaline protease production, in environmental decontamination of dioxins
Is used as a pesticide active ingredient
The optimal temperature for enzyme secretion is 37°C. It can exist in spore form to resist harsh environs, or in a vegetative state when conditions are good. Currently, scientists are exploring its ability to degrade feathers for agricultural purposes. Feathers contain high amounts of non-digestible proteins, but researchers hope that through fermentation with B. licheniformis, they can use waste feathers to produce cheap and nutritious feather meal to feed livestock.
, 5 lbs. But seriously, looking at the insane size of the bag, my first thought was, 'oh crap, how am I going to fit this into the 2 Aqueon 55 hob's!'
Well, it takes all kinds to make the world go round. 
*disclaimer* this is just my view of it all, and my views do no necessarily reflect the views of The Puffer Forum, its staff or related associates 
