nitrate question

[Meredith]

When testing my water, I am always sort of surprised at how low my nitrates are. In my fw tank the nitrates are usually around 20 all the time. In my sw tank they have been down around 10. Today they were at 0. I tested twice.
Why are they so low? I do have a LOT of algae at the moment. Could the algae be eating up all the trates?

 

[cmor1701d]

YES! The algae is feeding off the 'trates. Find and stop the source and the algae will also be gone. Do you have a fuge with macro algae to reduce the trates? That would be a good thing

BTW, I wish I could get my nitrate level below 20!

 

[Meredith]

Unfortunately the algae i have is all yuchy hair algae and diatoms. :?