One other thing, sorry but this thread got my brain moving today. I have seen reefers with algae scrubbers who get their nitrates down to basically zero and also claim to have excellent growth with corals. So that makes me think the nitrate is not the food source. It would seem like water changes, skimming and other things we do to remove nitrates also removes what is actually driving growth. I am really leaning towards just doing a big algae scrubber on my next tank.

Mike