i had my trates areound 50 when i came up with my own custom method, i gathered info from various websites, stores, and books. My trates haven't gone above 10 ever since.
The foundation of my filtration system is the "poly filtration pads" they dont kill off nitrates but they take out what cause nitrates, they kill the trates before they start. The way i use the pad is that i took out the carbon cartridge, and i custom-cut a piece of the pad to fit in the cartridge. To do this cut it to fit the cartridge, then cut slits half way through pad to fit over the plastic cross beams. The pad also removes phosphates copper, and other bad things. It wont take out trace elements.
Take out bio-balls and the top trickle tray, but leave the bottom strainer in. IN this middle chamber you can do loads of things. I have phosguard and carbon in the chamber. You can also put LR, Seachem Matrix, and other filter media. For the first week or so of my tank when i had trate problems i ran purigen and the pad, when i noticed the trates were low i took out the purigen and just have run the pad. Each pad lasts about 3-4 weeks in a nano,and online they are 5 bucks a piece, at my lfs they are 16.
Be sure to have plenty of LR in the display for bio filtration as well.
