Is there anything that counts bacteria in water in about half an hour?

I'm looking for a product that will count either aerobic bacteria or coliform bacteria in water, that needs no incubation and that would take about a half an hour. I don't need it to tell me exactly how many bacteria there is, just if water has bacteria or not. I really appreciate your help.

Is there anything that counts bacteria in water in about half an hour?
If you just want to get an idea of the general number of bacteria, the easist thing would be to use a spectrophotometer, since every lab has one. If you have lots of samples, you could use a spec capable of reading multiwell plates.





If you want a better idea of the actual number of bacteria, you can use some sort cell counting device, either automated or manual (hemocytometer anyone).





If you want to be super fancy and spend a lot of money, and get fairly accurate counts of E. coli specifically (in case other bacteria are present) you could add a fluorescent marker specific for E. coli to your sample and run it through a FACS (Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting ) machine.
Reply:See if a Coulter cell counter will work for this counting.





PS what did you think a Coulter counter was, panic girl? I do not know whether your superfluous answer or " thumps down " was more insulting. I will return the favor.
Reply:Use a nephelometer. It will estimate the amount of particles in suspension based on light scatter.
Reply:I don't know what a Coulter counter is, so hopefully I won't get insulted here...but a spectrophotometer is another option. It measures the turbidity (cloudiness) of a sample and gives you a light absorbance reading. Bacteria are generally detected at a 600 nanometer wavelength, so you can set the machine to read at that wavelength. If you use plain water (that you know has no bacteria) as a blank, you will know if there are bacteria in your sample if the absorbance reading increases. There are tables that you can use (online, easy to find) to match up the absorbance reading with an estimated number of bacterial cells. It is pretty much an instantaneous test, depending on how fast the spectrophotomer can read the two samples (blank and experimental). Hope this helps some...

broadleaf