Yup, I inherited a 10 year old tank, and the sand and rock was saturated with organics producing nitrates (as high as 100 ppm) and phosphate. I tried many things, incl vacuuming sand, rinsing rocks, refugium full of chaeto, but was not winning the war.
Finally I installed a bio-pellet reactor and with the use of MB7, brought down my nitrates to zero over a period of many months, where they have stayed now for a long time. Interestingly, while I still run the bio pellet reactor, my bio pellets are not being consumed to any degree anymore, and have not had to add any for almost a year. So I guess the nitrates have finally all been pulled out of the sand and rocks. I also have orange spot gobies which constantly sift the sand, so that helps rinse it clean, too.
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