hi i hve this saltwater tank setup for a good 4 months...
nitrate 20 to 40 ppm
nitrite 0
amonia 0
ph 7.8 to 8.3 varies

14 galon bio cube
13 lbs of lr
10 lbs of ls
small corals (mushroom,zoos,brain,plate,coco worm...
2 shrimps,3 small hermits,4 small snails and two blk fal fishes clowns percula ..

i change water twice a week about 1 galon at a time to reduce my nitrates but it seems like never ending deal...
i been using dw and hve no algae probelm...
all my live stock is doing geat and growing....
i am using a bio cube protien skimmer but dnt seem to be much of a help....
recently i added a purigen media filter bag in my 2nd chamber to reduce nitrates but that seems to do no help too.
my question is is nirate a big problem by it self when nitrite and ammonia is 0.
i know i am well stocked on my bio load which i was not aware of as a beginner aquariest but i am devoted to this hobby and will possible take all the time or step to prevent any prob that i might rum into...

need some advice please thanks.....

change more water

do a 50% water change once, then 5 gallons per week. Use RODI water from a lfs

Take out the sponge by the pump. Give it a good rinse, you can just throw it away if you want. Slowly (Very slowly) take out the bioballs. Like 1/4 of them a week is good.

thanks for all the replys ....yesterday i change about 3 galons of water and i guess tank holds about just about 10 galons in total after all the stuff i got in there...seems like when ever i do the water changes my nirates sort of go high...and this is strange to me ....i dnt know if i need to use the different test kit or what... i been using the api test kit thou....

+1 to removing the stock filtration.

whats a rodi water..

Reverse osmosis/deionized...

I love MQT city water and so do my corals! IDK why but i will not argue and you can't with 0's lol

is there any chemical treatment that i might need to do if just in case the nitrates stays the same after water change..

you might be right about the test kit, try taking a water sample to you lfs and see compare their reading to yours, dw is fine for water changes is distilled via reverse osmosis/ deionization, i agree about removing the stock filtration

siphon out the rear chambers when you do your water changes.

would this also be called "goldfish water" or "beta water"?

Advice? "Don't Sweat It"

You can try all the suggestions listed here, but you may find that you can't lower your Nitrate level much. I have the same problem that no matter how much water I change, or how often, nitrates will stay stable at around 25 ppm. Its like something (most likely my 10 year old LR) is equalizing nitrate back into the water every time I try to reduce it.

Anyway, I just ignore the nitrate since even my SPS don't seem to mind.

i went ahead and bought the nutrifen test kit.....tested the water and it reads just about 5ppm...
it was a damm test kit making me run through tons of water change and so much money dumping in to try different stuff for nothing.......

Might want to get a third test done to see which of your test kits is really off.

Or get your fish store to check.

yup i will do that tomorrow

It sounds like you may have too much live sand in the tank. You only need about 1/2 inch of sand in any tank. I've heard that too much sand will keep nitrates high. 10 lbs in a 14 gal tank must give you at least 1 inch of inch of sand. Just a thought.

well took the sample to the fish store....test it and it reads
nitrate 5ppm so that was a big relieve and api test kit was realy a $30 dump that i took which would read totaly off...dnt recommend that for sure...
hve another bit of a problem thou....i cant keep my ph to 8.1 some how....it was always reads 7.8 to 7.9 varies but realy want at 8.1 to 8.3.. i use kent maries buffer thou but any other opinion........