# is this important ?



## Flear (Oct 5, 2012)

is understanding nutrient cycles important ?

or just having enough of each nutrient so each can go through it's cycle without because caught in an intermediate stage that plants and micro-organisms are deprived ?

if sulfur has a slow cycle, just having more sulfur total (without too much) should work right ?
if say iron has a much faster cycle, ... than even if the plants have a higher iron content per mass, less total iron would be sufficient as it's able to be reintroduced back into the system quickly.

does this make sense ?


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

If you are running a normal tank, no they are not significant and do not need to be present or functional in the tank. Your original discussion on a self sustaining tank they are important as they must happen, when typically an aquarium does not fully cycle nutrients. We add nutrients then change water, ensuring there are nutrients present but not a build up or deficiency.


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## Flear (Oct 5, 2012)

i'm thinking about this again, ... if i get a substrate that is "close enough"

watch the plants for deficiencies, get a hell of a lot better at recognizing deficiencies than i am now.

redox, ph, ... they all inhibit & promote the cycling of nutrients from a used state into a usable state right ?

a tank, once setup, is going to contain a mix of all levels to promote redox forward & backwards depending on where that particular environment of that section of substrate is in. ... maybe that's confusing, ...

it will balance out - much simpler

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mostly i'm wondering the importance because it seems so much simpler to notice after everything is setup, ... to measure what's added to manage any deficiencies afterwards.

then have something like a v1, a v2, a v3, as things evolve

i'm just having trouble focusing on the book you suggested, i'd otherwise have finished it, but having trouble focusing on progress 

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that and i can't seem to focus without taking caffine, i hate that stuff 
with caffine i can focus fine 

i like that side, but it wears on me day after day.


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## corina savin (Jul 11, 2012)

Flear,
I see that this idea bothers you so I'll spend some time giving you my thoughts.
I also see that while searching for answers to little details, you miss the bigger picture. Your question boils down to "why my aquarium is not like a miniature lake or a piece of the river"?. My short answer is that you have a close, potentially unstable system while a lake or a river is an open, stable one.
Any "event" in your aquarium has a potential to become dramatic short term. Yes, it may rebalance in time but not fast enough not to have a direct impact on the rest. 
An open system that developed over thousands of years is equipped to deal (say) with a fish or plant death and because is such a large body of water, nothing happens in a way to affect the rest of the life around.
Your focus seems to be on denitrifying bacteria when you know there are a lot more than that (type wise) outside the nitrogen cycle. Those bacteria (involved in mineralization, sulfate reduction, methane oxidation, iron reduction...to name a few) took a looong time to form in lakes and rivers in a proper amount and balance with everything else. How can you duplicate this when a simple power failure in your home can crash your system?
While we should strive to replicate a natural environment we can only get closer but not exactly.
I hope it wasn't too long.
Excuse my English please. It is my second language.


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## Flear (Oct 5, 2012)

concerns with a power failure are ... so-so, ... as i look at things there are many things i can compensate for. yet this reminds me of the undergravel filter where a power failure can be the death of the tank

definitely something to keep in mind, ... a system build with any mechanical add-ons become dependent on that equipment or it could crash the tank very quickly - had not thought about this previously, thank you

the nitrogen cycle is the easiest one i know, mostly because it's almost the only one talked about in the hobby, ... plenty of ways to deal with it

sulfur is another one i have notes on
i'm curious about silica
iron has me baffled

so many have me confused in so many ways, ... well mostly because i don't know what their cycle is, finding information is hard, so far writing things down in a spreadsheet (it's like a notepad for me  to help me see things.

of the 20 some nutrients i have 'some' information on 3 or 4, ... horribly lacking to understand the full cycle.
worse when i look at iron and trying to understand and separate chemical, biological, pH, ... so confusing 

i don't think the time to get things going is nearly as precarious as how long it will last before it falls apart.


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