Computer assisted identification of filamentous bacteria

A method for identifying a filamentous organism of the type present in a biological waste water treatment process, comprising the steps of:

• (a) obtaining a magnified image of the filamentous organism to be identified;
• (b) evaluating the magnified image for the presence or absence of attached growth and the presence or absence of sulfur granules, wherein the attached growth comprises bacterial growth which is attached to a sheath of the filamentous organism;
• and
• (c) executing a computer program which, for each combination of the presence or absence of attached growth and the presence or absence of sulfur granules, provides a separate user interactive search tree, each search tree leading to a different set of possible types of filamentous organisms.