Finally!

My Nitrate level has finally dropped! I measured it at 5ppm yesterday with my Salifert kit. I remeasured this morning and got a reading between 2 and 5ppm. Finally!

So what finally got the Nitrates to drop?
1. Reduced feeding to once per day. I have been doing this for months so probably not too likely.
2. Deep sand bed. The deep sand bed was installed the first week of August. Does it really take three months to cycle?
3. Chaeto algae in fuge. Hmm. It's only been in there for about a month.
4. The lighting in the fuge. The lighting is causing algae to grow on the glass. All of the algae is full of bubbles. Could this be nitrogen? Also now seeing some bubbles in the sand. I saw this earlier when I was keeping the fuge lit. The bubbles went away when I stopped illuminating the fuge.
5. The lighting upgrade for the main tank. Can there be a relationship?

My Frogspawn, Xenia and mushrooms are doing very well. My Xenia keeps splitting on its own. I now have about 4 stalks on both sides of the tank. They pulse like crazy even with current flowing across them. My open brain has not been opened for months. I'm hoping that the combination of improved lighting and lower nitrates entice it to open soon.