Can bacteria nitrify ammonia if it is bonded to a base?

[nst.john]

If an ammonium ion is bonded to let's say chlorine for simplicity sake, and NH₄Cl is created, can nitrifying bacteria come in and still create nitrites and nitrates from the ammonia if it is bonded to the chlorine? I am asking this because I am planning to make a schematic for an aquaponics set-up and I want to balance the amount of ammonia in the water as possible, in my case with a base not chlorine, in order to be able to add more ammonia at once to the system without the water reaching toxic levels. Thank You!

 

[Bystander]

Can you rephrase your question? It appears you wish to use a different anion than chloride, but the way you've written it, it also appears you think that ammonium salts are undissociated in aqueous solution.

 

[nst.john]

Thats true. So the dissociated salts will have no effect since the ammonia is In ion form. Thank you

 

[Almeisan]

NH4+ is very soluble in combination with most common anions, but not all ions bacteria want to use are nicely soluble. For example, Fe3+ often sediments and concentrations naturally become very low. So siderophores are released to chelate Fe3+ ions away from their salts to make them bioavailable.