I do not agree. It is depleted. How would it? lol
Why would adding acetic acid or ethanol increase nitrification? How could it? You are not adding nitrogen.
It essentially drives the incorporation of nitrogen into organic matter. Sources of that N might be ammonia or nitrate. Neither process results in any depletion of alkalinity.
No. That is a totally incorrect assertion and may be the basis of our disagreement.
Ammonia to organic matter and back to ammonia has ZERO impact on alkalinity (nitrogen is in the same oxidation state in ammonia and in organics such as a protein), and that result does not depend on whether the ammonia was converted into nitrate before incorporation into organic matter or not. if you convert it first into nitrate, you lose alkalinity, and then you get that same alkalinity back again if you convert it into either ammonia or organic matter.
NO3 ( + phosphate +?) + carbohydrates = protein Protein + consumption= biomass + ammonia ammonia + seawater = NH4+ NH3 NH4 + nitrification ( alkalinity consumption) = NO3 NO3 + carbohydrates = an ongoing chain of biomass + ammonia production which includes the nitrification process. Biomass grows and stays in the system!
At high C:N ratio the chain will be from NH4 to NH4 without nitrificition because no nitrate will be formed as all ammonia will be assimlated. The assimilation of NH4 consumes alkalinity! The produced biomass stays in the system!
The produced protein must be consumed or removed to have any effect on the nitrogen and phosphate concentration in the water column. The effect is limited to the increasing biomass and what may be removed by the skimmer. All will be recycled when the cultivated biomass dies off. At the end of the food chain this will be the fish which feeds on the organisms fed by the produced protein. To have no effect on alkalinity on must wait till the fish is decomposed and mineralized.!? The protein removed by the skimmer = alkalinity loss.!?