sen5241b
Reef enthusiast
My nitrates were at 10 to 20ppm for a long time and then I put a big piece of chaeto in my fuge and the nitrates dropped to zero --they've been at that level for several weeks. After they dropped to zero my feather duster lost half his feathers. Could the chaeto be competing with the phytoplankton for nitrates in the water column? No doubt different algae species will out compete each other in nature. I have a lot of hitchhiker inverts that may need the phytoplankton. Maybe nitrates at just 3 or 4 ppm is optimal as opposed to zero. From what, I've read there are some nitrates and phosphates in sea water.