CURIOUSITY: What in a cycle doesn't allow for corals?

[Begow]

As the topic states, this is strictly for curiosity.

 

What about a cycle doesn't allow for coral? Is it the nitrite, nitrates, or ammonia?

 

I know nitrates are bad for most SPS, but what causes LPS/Shrooms/Zoas and hardier/easy to take care of corals to not live?

 

Thanks!

[Mariaface]

Mostly the ammonia, yes. Since it basically burns. You cycle so that your beneficial bacteria will be capable of sustaining a decent bioload. Otherwise, the tank's inhabitants produce too much waste. And that's not factoring in feeding.

[Tamberav]

technically all of them... ammonia being the worst... nitrite being slightly less toxic and nitrate being the least toxic but at higher levels still causes many issues.

[Begow]

technically all of them... ammonia being the worst... nitrite being slightly less toxic and nitrate being the least toxic but at higher levels still causes many issues.

 

There's actually been studies that show nitrites aren't as toxic as they are in freshwater. Some studies I saw earlier on RC showed 100PPM+ of nitrites is livable. According to what I read it was a belief brought from freshwater that doesn't necessarily carry over.

[Mariaface]

There's actually been studies that show nitrites aren't as toxic as they are in freshwater. Some studies I saw earlier on RC showed 100PPM+ of nitrites is livable. According to what I read it was a belief brought from freshwater that doesn't necessarily carry over.

 

That's true, but I'd be worried if I had nitrites. That'd mean the bacteria that turn it into nitrate aren't around, which means the anaerobic bacteria wouldn't have food either. I suppose you could force the cycle to end with nitrites, though? If you... worked really hard at it and lived in a bubble?

[Begow]

That's true, but I'd be worried if I had nitrites. That'd mean the bacteria that turn it into nitrate aren't around, which means the anaerobic bacteria wouldn't have food either. I suppose you could force the cycle to end with nitrites, though? If you... worked really hard at it and lived in a bubble?

 

Haha maybe! I was just curious because I always thought corals produced ammonia, then they were broke down by bacteria. My friend offered me a free one headed Duncan, and in my experience I have seen them to be very hardy. If it produced ammonia it could help with the cycle. I told him no either way, this post was more of a theory crafting though.

[afyounie]

Ammonia is obviously the big killer, but then excess nitrite and nitrate cause their own issues. I know that nitrite causes animals to suffocate, most likely because the bacteria in the water that convert it from nitrite to nitrate suck up so much oxygen. Now, if it stayed nitrite then you can start to get nitrous acid since it will bind with any free hydrogen it can find. So now your pH will begin to drop. Nitrate is a building block of life. Nitrate is used extensively by plants, and corals carry dinoflagellates within them, so now you are putting the corals into over drive with the excess nitrates present. This causes them to brown out. I believe at high levels of nitrates it also interferes with other biological processes within coral, I'm not a biologist so not sure on that part. If you did get the duncun and put it in during the cycle, it would have added to the ammonia in the tank, but as decaying matter.

 

The whole point of the cycle is to build up the necessary bacteria to convert ammonia to nitrate for animals and such to use. In a large ecosystem, the nitrate is used up by the flora which is then fed on by the fauna and eventually returns to ammonia and restarts the process. In our small tanks, there usually isn't enough of the flora to consume the vast amounts of nitrates being put into the tank via food. Mass conservation holds no matter what, so all that food we feed our fish and corals has to go somewhere. Hence the use of skimmers to pull out fish waste, uneaten food, and other nitrate causing compounds, leaving enough for the minimum flora to consume and grow.