I am having trouble with nitrate!!

[kyarnkid]

I have had my tank now for about 6 months. Its a 55 and I run a sandman and and emp 400. I have a prizm protein skimmer and i have a dsb.
OK, that out of the way. I have been having trouble with my nitrates for about 2 months now. I do not know why. I thought my DSB should have matured enough by now to correct it and plus I run a protein skimmer at all times. I have done a couple of water changes but nothing helps. I use tap water and mix it with salt and pour some stress coat in it(all into a tub with a powerhead for about 3 hours). I have heard that tap water may have trates in it. What do I need to get rid of it?
I have kind of skimped on my tank lately for personal reasons. I have only turned the lights on, fed them, and (hours later) turned the lights off, but I have new fish and my algae problem has cleaned up. I haven't really checked my water conditions, until recently and my trates are around 80. I am now ready to beat this problem and work on getting a reef up.
Help

 

[richard rendos]

Test your tap water to see if there are nitrates in it. If so, buy bottled water, or RO/DI from your local pet shop, or Wally World carries RO water in some of there stores. If you are doing water changes, the nitrates should be dropping. Also test water with another test kit. Test kits do sometimes go bad and give false readings.

 

[tang-go]

I have an 80 gal. set-up that I purchased used last fall. Over the last 4 months my nitrates have continuously risen to around 30 - 30+. I was told that my crushed coral is notorious for trapping food and by vacuuming the cc, and doing 20-25% water changes I could bring the nitrates down. Have done this twice now, nitrates are down below 20...this was advice from local fish store.

 

[ruaround]

Like richard said..use RO/DI (reverse osmosis/ deionized)water. I was having a prob with nitrates as well, since i have been using RO water and doing a 10% water change for the last 4 weeks they have come down to 20ppm from 80ppm.

 

[pancho]

I AGREE WITH RICHARD, WHEN I HAD NITRATE PROBLEMS IN MY TANKS I REMOVED THE UNDERGRAVEL FILTER AND ADDED NITRATE REMOVER MEDIA IN THE BIO WHEELS AS WELL AS THE MAGNUMS FILTERS AND REDUCED THE AMOUNT OF FOOD AND CHANGED THE WATER 40% EVERY TWO WEEKS.