There are multiple scientific articles documenting that obligate autotrophs (needing ammonia) - can indeed go Dormant - with die of as time increases.@Lasse and I have had conversations about the ability for nitrifiers to go dormant, often for a very long period of time. He specifically brought up soil nitrifiers during winter, but there would be no reason to think that the nitrifiers in our reefs wouldn’t do the same.
The major flaw in thinking that our bacteria will starve and die off if not ‘fed’ is that it assumes there is no other source of N in the system beyond what we add.
In the thread I’m referring to w/Lasse, I brought up the idea of carrying capacity (K) for a system, and how in regard to bacterial population, the population will shift its K in response to its less available limiting factor, but they will never actually go away. Then, if more N, for example, becomes available in the system, the K will shift accordingly.
Will it happen overnight? Not really. Will it take so long that animals are at risk of being in a toxic environment? Not really. Bacteria have been around for billions of years…they’re not new to the game. Nobody is getting rid of bacteria in their systems by doing anything short of pouring a gallon of bleach into the tank…and even then, something will find a way to survive.