into nitrites that are less toxic than ammonia.
not nitrites that are less toxic than nitrate, i was asking that, about corals. thanks for the clarification.
so nitrites are less tolerable by corals than nitrate?
my reasoning is that as long as there are bacteria, nitrification is a given, and its nitrates that one has to worry about, anyway, on the coral's health.
its new to me that its okay -- and actually beneficial -- to have the the nitrate levels implied above present in order to have better colored corals in one's tank. interesting.
aside or maybe overall:
yea it just gets complicated cause everything is related once you're talking about two-way nutrient cycle in reef. while there are few, very few reefers that keep reef aquariums devoid of fish and other heavy polluters, and regardless, all living matter "poops" so to speak, even the corals.
looking back at the history or marine aquaria, first there was the sterile, carbon-only reliance on filtration, complete with stark white sand, stark white bleached corals and way too many inches of fish per gallon, then there was the bio-balls in a very artificial attempt to complement that chemical filtration with the newly refreshed importance of --sufficient - biological filtration, while preserving the same sterile look, ---assuming that supplementing the bacteria on the glass and in the sand with more surfact area, then there was the the low bioload natural approach which finally introduced a few pieces of live rock (much less than 1 lb per gallon), an airstone (lol) and fewer fish per gallon (finally). today we are at a point where bold aquarist (the reefer) wants to have the entire biotope of a reef in their aquarium. zfter all that's why we spend exorbitant amounts of hard earned cash, right? not to show off (!), but to understand and appreciate the beauty and balance of nature in the coral reef.
my opinion on that note happens to be that we've gotten carried away, stocking tanks to kingdom come while relying on all sorts of always newer contraptions and additives, etcetera etcetera to boost the ever increasing diverse species life support bill. lol
in a nutshell, even in a simple enclosed artificial marine microenvironment (any sw tank) sufficient physical substrate is necessary for nitrifying bacteria to do their thing. the more bioload, the exponentially more substrate will be needed. the actual # of bacteria is determined by the bacteria as they replicate over the course of just a few weeks by themselves (assuming they have ample substrate) in response to the particular waste load.
studies on the exact calculations of the above would be interesting and impressive to see.
overall, let's remember the increase of nutrient levels in a coral habitat is what often leads to to the reefs' demise anywhere in the world whether the other side of the world or in our living rooms.
well i'm off to read about coral's removal of any nutrients in the aquarium.
