[untamed]

While my battle with hair algae is under control, it is very much still there. My one remaining sea hare continues to do a decent job. It could be that this is just where my tank ends up.

In an effort to figure out what is going on, I've purchased a Pinpoint nitrate monitor. $250 later, the official low-range reading on my tank is.... zero ppm

Yes, absolute zero. I then verified the test by diluting the 10ppm calibration fluid 50/50 with aquarium water and got a reading of 5 ppm.

So...what does this mean? I suppose it means that any available nitrate is being used by algae faster than I can detect it. I'm going to theorize that algae needs light to make use of the nitrate. That would suggest that I might be able to detect nitrates in the morning, before the lights come on.

More on this as experimenting continues.