Nitrates help

[asylumdown]

ditto on the fluval being part of the problem. It sounds counter-intuitive, but in a reef tank you should actually aim to limit the substrate upon which the nitrogen cycle can occur. It's one of those 'if you build it they will come' sort of things. If you put infrastructure in place that bypasses any opportunity for nitrogen containing waste materials to be consumed by macro organisms that might turn it in to more biomass, or exported via mechanical means and go straight towards heterotropic decomposition by bacteria, you're almost guaranteeing you'll struggle with high nitrates. You want just as much nitrification taking place to keep the amount of ammonia produced during fish and invertebrate respiration under control. You want as little organic solids decomposing in your water as possible.