Nitrate

[mmaglione]

My nitrate levels in my tank or always high. I understand that ammonia is produced, broken into less toxic nitrite, then into least toxic nitrate. So after testing my parameters in my 1 year old tank, my nitrites are at 0ppm and ammonia at .2. My nitrates were really high however. I have had this instance as wel where ammonia was 0ppm as well as nitrites but nitrates were also high. My fish are all fine when these instances occur, however may be unfavorable to my coral. What is the cause of this. I cant seem to get rid of the nitrate for some reason, i do a 20 - 50% water change and have even tried chemicles that are thought to remove nitrates, however every reading i take with my drip test kit from API, it shows nitrate levels.
Why is this, anything i can do to help ?

 

[rive1404]

It may be caused by the amount of waste produced by the fish and how much you feed them. How big is your tank and what kind of fish do you have in it?

Any reading of ammonia is never good...

 

[mmaglione]

i have a 55G and only 3 fish, i dont overfeed, infact i feed about a pinch every other day.

 

[rive1404]

What kind of fish?

 

[mmaglione]

small to medium yellow halk tang, green chromis and a ocellarous clown.

 

[rive1404]

Are you using RO/DI water? If you are then I'm stumped.

And what kind of filtration are you utilizing?