Nitrate, phosphate, and CO2 are endproducts of aerobic remineralization, breaking down organic waste to its essential components.
These components, the basic elements, may be reused for algae growth. All of them play an essential role, not only phosphate and nitrate. It is about reusing all building materials to close the carbon cycle in which algae play a very important role.
Algae are not the enemy and can be used for managing the nutrient content and nutrient balance in the system as their growth and growth rate easily can be managed using AAM! ref:
MB CMF De Haes 2017-2021
Nitrate is safely stored nitrogen.
Increasing inorganic nutrients levels are the messengers of something going wrong and are the result of an existing problem, very exceptional the cause.
Why inorganic nutrients slowly can build up in a well-lit aquarium and are not used up?
When nitrate is used as a nitrogen source instead of ammonium, growth rates are reduced drastically.
it is a myth thinking nitrate does increase algae growth. Nitrate-nitrogen is constantly exported due to natural denitrification, ammonia-nitrogen stays in the system. If algae become a problem having a high nitrate level, imagine what would be the situation when the nitrogen present in the nitrate reserve would have been stayed available as ammonium-nitrogen.
It has been shown high nitrogen availability may be responsible for coral bleaching during periods of increased growth (increased temp?) due to phosphorus starvation, the phosphorus supply not being able to follow the fast increasing demand. Using nitrate-nitrogen slows down growth rates and it is very unlikely nitrate may be responsible for phosphorus starvation.
So, what would be the emergency included in the presence of nitrate?
Phosphate and phosphorus?
It has been shown a high availability of phosphate increases the calcification rates of corals. ref:
MB CMF de Haes 2017-2019
