nitrate issues...sand causing?

[saltwaternewbee]

I've had my 180 up and running for over a year now and decided to downsize. (Volume and fish) only have 10 fish no bigger then 2" for a little over 200g water volume. The 180 had no issues with nitrates. I ran argonite and all was good. Took all the water and used it for the new set up. Decided to use sugar sand and since the beginning (7months now) I've had nitrate issues around 40-60 ppm. Been doing water changes and set up a bio pellet reactor trying to knock them down. No change. As stated the only change I have done is use sugar sand vs argonite.

Can this be the cause or something else i'm overlooking?

 

[Andrew9307]

I Had the same problem for a long time dont know what caused it but i got some chemipure elite and added it to my filtration and in just a few hours my tank was more clear and the next day my nitrates dropped abot 10 ppm this stuff works great and its only like 15 bucks marine depot has it at good prices

 

[Andrew9307]

also i have had a bad experiance with sugar sand and i prefer to use argonite because it helps with the tank and also i like gobys so the have some good stuff to filter through