The Effect Of Water Treatment Tablets And Water Filters On The Amount Of Bacteria That Grows On A Nutrient Agar Plate

The purpose of this experiment was to find the best method for treating water while backpacking or hiking. The experiment compared no treatment to treating with water treatment tablets and a water filter. It was hypothesised that the treatments would both have less colonies grown than the untreated water, and that the water treated with purification tablets would have less colonies than the water treated with a filter.The water samples were taken from Pine Springs Pond in Columbia, SC then treated with water treatment tablets and a water filter. The water was then streaked onto nutrient agar plates and left to incubate for 2 days. Then the colonies on the plates were recorded. The data showed that the water treated with a water filter had significantly (F(2,37)=8.68, p=0.001) less bacterial colonies grow than the water that was untreated. The water that was treated with water treatment tablets had less colonies, but the difference was not significant. The difference between the diameter of the colonies in millimeters was also significant (F(2,184)=20.41, p= 0.001). The hypothesis was not fully supported. Both treatments did have less colonies than the untreated water, but the filter had less than the water tablets