Microbial community abundance and activity in the vertical and horizontal subsurface flow filters of experimental greywater treatment system

Microbial community of an experimental greywater treatment system was studied using Illumina based sequencing. The system treated greywater of a 5-member family. Greywater from the septic tank was distributed between the three parallels of the vertical flow filters and then pumped to the horizontal flow filter. Filter media samples from vertical and horizontal subsurface flow filters were taken over ten month period from November to August after the working regime was started. Microbial community profiling was performed using Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencing combinatorial sequence-tagged PCR products. Primers were used to amplify the bacterial specific V6 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene.