What happens to Nitrate when you remove all phosphate?

[neoreef]

I am operating under the hypothesis that the reason my nitrates went to 0 after my tank was well cycled was that I added a protein skimmer and PC lights to the live rock in my tank, and algae, green hair and other, began to grow. These consumed the nitrates.
The types of algae continue to evolve in my refugium-less tank, and now I have this pink hair that refuses to go away, and is taking over too much real estate! Interestingly, my green hair appears to be going away. Never was a big deal.
I've been intrigued, as have many others, by the posts of Steveweast and the idea that he has dicussed about removal of phosphate as a way to control algae.
I am considering geting a ROWAphos-filled fluidized bed reactor to remove phosphate to discourage algal growth of this nature(pink! ).
I wonder what will happen to the NITRATES if these sequesterers , algaes, are removed.
Have an thoughts about this?

 

[steveweast]

Many things consume nitrates...liverock,the sand bed, clams, and algae. You'll never run out of phosphate or nitrate.....they are constantly being added to the system by us. The best that we can strive for is to keep these element's concentrations to that of the ocean's.....something that will be nearly impossible to do even with the largest refugiums, reactors, or skimmers. As one NOAA biologist once told me "even the best of the tanks out there would qualify as an EPA superfund clean-up site if it were in a bay somewhere"

 

[neoreef]

Thanks, Steve,
I still think that my nitrates are going to rise if I de-phospate the tank and the algae go away, but maybe the coraline will be enough to handle it. I'll have to try it and test a lot.
I love this hobby, I really do...