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Wastewater Organisms Database
Nocardia
Purpose of Web Page
The purpose of this page is to introduce the physical characteristics of Nocardia. Nocardia is an Actinomycetes that is common to wastewater activated sludge. It owes its notoriety to its ability to cause extensive damage to the treatment process. The abundance of this particular organism has been associated with scum formation.
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| This photographs was taken at a magnification of 100x using a phase contrast microscope. Notice the "tumble weed" appearence of Nocardia. Once you have seen Nocardia under the microscope you will never forget the way it looks. The next time you see it you will readily identify it without the use of a stain. Nocardia is Gram positive and Neisser variable (at times Neisser positive granules will appear). Nocardia is a notable filamentous bacteria because it has become implicated in the production of foam and bulking at wastewater treatment plants. | This photographs was taken at a magnification of 400x. The floc in this photo is loose and diffuse meaning that it is not very dense and thus it will settle down slowly. The addition of Nocardia into the settleability equation makes this activated sludge a very poor settling sludge. Some branching can be seen at this magnification. |
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Nocardia is common to activated sludge. Nocardia can be described as being rather short filaments irregularly bent, and displaying "true branching". Nocardia has cells that are 1.0 µm wide and 1.0-2.0 µm long. The overall length of a Nocardia filament is between 10-20 µm long. |
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Date Page Last Revised: 19 January 2000.
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