Hey Andy!!! Been quiet/withdrawn because sad, bad events have been transpiring (for weeks

) w/non-aquatic species, ergo, ptsd’ing-out

But here i am again to plumb your brilliance & wisdom, so here’s the deal—hot topic, again, NITRATES.
Before i explicate, & before u point to what what i ‘should’, ideally, be doing—please, please consider/remember ‘empirical limitations’—to wit: i CANNOT setup/accommodate a bigger tank ‘at this time’; consider that yet another goal—but for the moment, our focus is a 10 gallon.
The last time i posted i shared the bladder snail prob (YIKES: prolific lil f’ers

). So i got 3 assassin snails & i remove egg masses when i see them.
Before i get to THE point, i have to state that the residents ‘appear’ happy/healthy; the water parameters r consistent: nitrite/ammonia, 0… pH holds at 7.2 (dropped from 7.6).
Freaking out over NITRATE, which is rarely below betw. 10-20; I do a water change every few days; last did one on Saturday (7th); on May 30th rinsed filter & filtration media in the removed (to be discarded) water. Am doing another one tonight—the nitrate looks to be 20+ppm
I do NOT overfeed. The ONLY edible material i add/remove daily is a Fluval Bug Bites Algae wafer to supplement the diet of the hillstream loaches (3—NOT large—and, the tank population conforms to the ‘1 inch of fish per gallon’ guideline) & 1 mystery snail.
As stated, everybody ‘appears’ ‘happy’, eating consistently—they all LOOK terrific—truly fun to observe!!!
From a variety of sources i’ve consulted, apparently some folks do ‘daily’ water changes, & i get the %age factor—ie, 50% change, 50% reduction, but an obvious concern is overdoing the water changes & disrupting the tank ecology, right?
So, stuck between a rock & a hard place
Should i be rinsing the filtration setup more often (last done May 30th) or persist w/more frequent water changes? (I know it’s anathema to do both simultaneously

).
I LOVE my goofball, both beautiful & comical-looking/behaving hillstreams, but there’s a part of me (a PART) that’s on the verge of seeking an adopter & throwing in the towel
With all the products & technology out there, it’s hard to believe that there isn’t some remedy or paraphernalia that absorbs, neutralizes, or at least reduces the blasted nitrate
Please advise! THANK YOU