Fish tank microrganisms under a scope...

[chuckngrace]

Hi,
My wife and I have an experimental aquaculture tank (testing with goldfish right now) and an aquaponics grow bed. We've been checking water chemistry and see evidence of the nitrogen cycle as we 'cycle the tank'. We looked at the filter area under a microscope and I made this short video.

I mislabeled the video with 'bacteria'. I've learned since posting it that we're looking at 'critters' larger than bacteria.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sq9EgbxGUU

The video is half 40X power and then half 400X power. We think the large 'slug-like' organisms are some kind of paramecium...just a guess. There are also round things that seem to have two circular areas on them...and there are even smaller circles moving about. We counted three types of organisms.

We'd appreciate any thoughts as to what we are looking at. We hang out at an aquaponics site and a self-sufficiency site (we are backyard organic gardners) and thought we would jump over here for some expertise and help.

Thanks,
Chuck