Nitrates and algae

[ryeguyy84]

I'm having a bit of an outbreak of hair algae at the moment but I'm pretty sure it's dying as it's pretty easy to pull off and it's very mushy like it's melting. Anyway it got me thinking, what role do nitrates play in algae growth?

Can algae grow with low phosphate, say .02ppm but high nitrates?

 

[Coralreefer1]

It’s food for both micro and macro algae. Yes algae can grow with low phosphates and higher nitrates especially with lighting being introduced.