37 gallon FOWLR nitrates high

[Twalker791]

I have a 1 year old 37 gallon FOWLR tank, and the last couple of weeks I have been unable to keep my nitrates at an acceptable level. They are reading around 40 )right after water changes)-80 no matter what I do. I faithfully do water changes once a week (and have done 2 fifteen gallon changes in hopes to reduce nitrates, and all I have in my tank right now is a coral beauty angel, dwarf hawkfish, domino damsel, and 3 snails. I have an HOB filter (which I have an algone packet in there but it isn’t doing anything), a small skimmer, and a power head that agitates the surface. I definitely do not overfeed- I feed once per day and only what they eat within 3-4 mins. I have only been using treated distilled water that I have tested and has absolutely zero of anything in it (after 10 months of using treated tap with no issues and tap has 10 ppm) only thing I haven’t tried is any sort of chemical nitrate reducer and I wanted to post on here before trying any of that. Any suggestions?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Add a pouch of chemipure blue to sump and it will lower it and keep it in check. Same with phosphate.

 

[BostonReefer300]

What are you using for a NO3 test kit? Are you seeing a lot of nuisance algae growth?