160ppm nitrate!!!!

i feed them one cube of mysis shrimp every night

 

You might want to check and see if they are lodged in the filter. We were feeding one cube of brine shrimp every other day on our 40 which houses 5 fish and a cuc and half of it would end up clogged in the canister. We switched to Rods food which is excellent for everything in a reef system and doesnt seem to make much of a mess. Someone else with more experience will probably chime in but that seems like alot of food on a daily basis for just 5 fish.

 

from my understanding the skimmer is something you really need to get running. it will help by lowering the dissolved organics in the water which can break down into nitrate. also with the cube you are feeding...do you thaw it and rinse it before you feed it? and also if you are running a setup with live rock in it then the bioballs and other media are not helping your situation. weekly water changes can help you keep it under control until you can get a handle on the cause of it all.

 

Turning your filter off durring feeding solves the food problem. When I ran mechanical filters I always turned off the pump for feeding.

 

The skimmer will help keep nitrates from rising in the future but will not remove any that are already present.Water changes are the most effective way to reduce them.I would do a 50% change followed by more changes of 20-30% untill levels are good.Doing them weekly will work,if you cut back on feeding,clean your filter media as suggested,and get your skimmer working well,so nitrates are not forming as fast as you're removing them with the water changes.I did this with a small fish only tank that I had badly neglected,took some time but it did work and nitrate levels dropped from over 100 and now are holding steady at about 10-15ppm (its a little overstocked).

 

BTW,I would replace the carbon but just rince the other media well in the old water when you do a water change,that way you won't kill the good bacteria living in it.

 

IMO, the anthias has no business in a 29 gallon tank. They need a 70 gallon tank at minimum. Very active fish. 5 fish in a 29 is also borderline overstocked and feeding an entire cube of mysis every day is pretty heavy. I would remove the anthias to start and begin feeding every other day in addition to water changes.

 

Keeping excess nutrients out of the aquarium water is one key element in reducing your NO3. As you may know, dirty bio media become a nitrate factory, most people don't use any additional bio media besides live rock in their tanks. There are many other things that can add excess nutrients into your tank like some commercial foods which may contain undesirable things like nitrates, phosphates etc and overfeeding the tank is also another factor. Using , RO/DI water, a high quality salt with no NO3, phosphates etc like Tropic Marin or similar good quality salt should really help too

 

There's been good advice so far, you're definitely over feeding which was mentioned on you're last thread on this topic as well as probably over stocked for the size tank and filtration you have. A skimmer will help a lot and will drastically improve the water quality. An anthias should not be in that size tank as has already been mentioned. Much of this advice was already given in your last thread. I don't know if you're looking for a quick fix, but water changes will only treat the symptom, and you need to make sure your water doesn't have nitrates in it already. The crux of the problem is your bioload, lack of skimmer and your feeding habits, change these and you should see a big improvement.

 

Also check with a different test kit, a known good one like salifert, make sure the chemicals are not passed exipiration date