There is a surprising amount of variation in the levels of Nitrifying Microbes in saltwater aquariums, beyond what most reef keepers previously imagined. So if your tank shows low levels in the Nitrifying Community section of the report, you’re not alone.
A few things to keep in mind:
- Low levels of nitrifying microbes should only be considered a problem if your aquarium suffers from excess nutrients. This may show up as high levels on your tests, or as nuisance algae.
- So if your nutrient levels are maintained in your desired range using a macroalgal refugium or an algal scrubber, for example, then low nitrifying communities would not be a problem.
- Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) are typically much less abundant than ammonia-oxidizing microbes (AOM), so if AOM are low, then NOB are likely to fall below the limits of detection. This should be interpreted as a reduction in the overall nitrifying community rather than a specific deficiency in NOB.
With that said, here are some strategies for enhancing your nitrifying community.
- Most of the popular bottled bacterial products contain one or more types of nitrifying bacteria. So there are many options on the market to supplement these deficiencies, and we don’t endorse any of these products over the others because we have not yet compared their performance ourselves.
- However, the most abundant ammonia-oxidizer in almost all aquariums are not Bacteria, but rather Archaea in the family Cenarchaeaceae. Most bottled products do not contain this group, although Dr Tim’s One & Only does.
- In our experiments, we’ve found that natural materials including Live Rock and Live Mud & Sand are effective for seeding aquariums with a diverse nitrifying community. We expect that materials of this kind from other sources are likely to offer similar benefits.
- Another important option to consider: feed more! The nitrifying community grows or shrinks depending on the amount of available ammonia and nitrite in the water. So if your nitrifying community is low, and you don’t have excess nutrients or nuisance algal growth, increasing either the quantity or frequency of feeding is one of the easiest ways to promote the growth of these populations.