Consistently high nitrate

My first thought was high nitrates in the source water, then a bad test kit, but both have been ruled out. Clearly there's some unseen evil in the tank making it a nitrate factory. When all else fails, it's time for a tear down.
 
What kind of substrate do you have? Plain washed gravel? Any additives?
 
Substrate is black Petco brand aquarium sand. I did vac some debris last night and hit the areas with no plants. Also pulled the filter and cleaned it as best I could, and got a bunch of crud out of the pump housing. Changed filter media, took out about 8 gallons, and the nitrate dropped to around 20. :)
 
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Nitrate climbed back up, but I tested after feeding. Going to do a water change tomorrow (today) after work. Interestingly, the ammonia stayed under .25 after messing with the filter. Zero nitrite, as usual. Fish still highly active and eating heartily, and Archer and Lana are chasing each other all over the tank. I don't know anything about breeding BNs, so I'm wondering if changing out so much water is triggering something.
 
How much of a cube of Blood worms are you feeding? With your fish load, should be about half. Who are you feeding the shrimp pellets to?
 
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