I always seem to have nitrates around 40 ppm in my current tank (29 gallon biocube). After a lot of research into possible skimmers, I don't think a real good one exists for small tanks (<50 gallons). After giving it some thought, I'm wondering if a denitrifying reactor might fix the issue? I'd continue to run phoshpate media in a back chamber and do a couple water changes a month.
A reactor like Bashsea's No-Trate denitrator, could easily be plumbed into the return pump and put under the tank. (I may have to figure out if the pump can handle that much head loss as I'm sure there is a lot of friction loss going through the tubing and media. Elevation head loss would be negligible since I would run it as a closed loop in the back chamber.)
Anyone using the Bashsea or other denitrifyers? How did it work? How long did it take to get the nitrates down?