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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kenneth Wingerter" data-source="post: 11352405" data-attributes="member: 124828">The answer, I suppose, is 'maybe.' That depends on the rate of growth as well as the rate of nitrogen fixation. The ultimate population size will depend on how much the bacteria are pressured by competing microbes, as well as the rate at which they are grazed by corals, copepods, bivalves and other picoplanktivores. Additionally, factor in that they prefer anaerobic habitats and higher temps, which will increase the population carrying capacity and growth rate respectively. Carbon dosing an acetic substance such as vinegar increases both. Both nitrogen and phosphorus are exported as the young, motile daughter cells are removed via skimming.More to your point regarding high PO4/low NO3, remember that these organisms are nitrogen fixers. When NH4/NO3 is scarce, these bacteria convert nitrogen gas (N2) into NH4 (essentially the reverse of denitrification). Therefore, while most bacteria would be useless for removing PO4 in these conditions, these bacteria can adapt and carry on. That is, so long as they can successfully invade/colonize a substantial area of anaerobic habitat (they can only perform nitrogen fixation in anaerobic conditions).While your PO4 may be too high for your liking (inhibiting stony coral growth, for example), these conditions are in essence what you'd find on a typical natural reef--where nitrogen is limiting and there is a relatively small, albeit adequate, concentration of PO4. Many coral biologist suggest that these conditions are the main reason reefs aren't covered in algae, the competitor of corals. Corals nevertheless thrive owing to their symbiotic relationship with nitrogen fixers. In other words, nitrogen is limiting outside the coral polyp (i.e., the water column) but not within the polyp itself.So these bacteria (e.g., Rhodopseudomoans palustris) can live in two places, in the substrate/biomedia and in the coral. The former is where you'll potentially achieve the most phosphorus removal (export via skimming), though the latter is also interesting and worthy of mention.</blockquote>

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