Norbert Kamjunke, Dietmar Straile, Ursula Gaedke
J Plankton Res 2009; 31 (8): 899-907.
doi: 10.1093/plankt/fbp037
Overall, bacterial biomass did not change during re-oligotrophication, whereas chlorophyll-specific biomass of bacteria increased, APP biomass and phosphorus concentration showed a unimodal pattern and HNF biomass strongly declined with decreasing trophy resulting in a unimodal relationship between chlorophyll-specific HNF biomass and phosphorus. This shows that the different components of the microbial food web responded in a complex and group-specific way to alterations in nutrient and chlorophyll concentration. In conclusion, HNF responded much stronger and bacteria less than chlorophyll concentrations to re-oligotrophication, whereas APP exhibited a more complex pattern.
So cleaning up the dissolved nutrients in our tanks probably has the same limited effect….bacteria are super-competitors for phosphorus and appear able to keep it locked up (cycling?) within their biomass, independently of dissolved levels in the water.
Reef Success 