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On your last question they do fade away - run out of easy meals I suspect. Dr Tim makes a gel that slow releases waste-away over month for that reason (bacteria don't stay in system indefinitely).
Test tubes? Once unsuccessfully. Giving it another shot.
(grunge that had built up in a neglected algae tank over months, tested vs 3 different "grunge eating" bacterial blends with and without ethanol.)
So right now my observations are based on my aquarium.
I wonder if the test tubes went anaerobic. I assume waste away is aerobic bacteria mix.
Fun fact: in waste water treatment, less sludge is produced in an anaerobic digester than an aerobic digester. Hard to translate that information into implication for an aquarium. One take away is that waste is converted to bacteria mass, though it should be less than original mass because a portion goes to making energy (CO2). Since the bacterial mass is presumably in the substrate, I wonder about its fate.