Nitrate and Nitrite levels high

[Alin10123]

Hey guys,
My tank is about 2 months old now.
Last week when i had a mollie die on my i went to go get the water tested at the LFS. They said that my nitrate is pretty high. Everything including ammonia, PH etc... is all nice and low like it should be.
So i got one of those Ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite absorbing pouches as recommended by the manager there.
I went home, did a 25% water change, and i stuck the pouch in the tank and weighed it down with some gravel.

This week i lost another mollie. Except i think this one died due to parasites since his gills were really red and inflamed when he died. All of the other fish seem fine. Anyways... i did another 25% water change.
A couple of days later (today) i went to go get another water test to see what the levels were.
The lady in the store said that the nitrite levels were border line and that the nitrate levels were as high as the charts go.

I bought some more of the pouches to absorb the nitrates, but there has to be something else that can be done.

I've got mostly live bearers in the tank. I've only got about 16-18 fish in there. Guppies, mollies, black finned tetras, platys, and about 10 mollie fry. Oh yea, also about a 3-4 inch pleco along with a bottom feeding algae eater.
But that's about it in my 29 gallon tank. My livebearers aren't that big either, most are 1 inch if that.

I am very careful about feeding now. I feed the fish only twice a day and i drop the food in slowly. This way very little if any hits the gravel. Once the fish finish up with the little i put in, then i put more in.

thanks for your advice in advance, i dont want to loose anymore fish.
The LFS recommends continue using the pouches and doing the once a week water changes.

I wanted to see what ya'll opinions were.

thanks
Aaron

[Alin10123]

ALso, whenever i change the water i also try to use the gravel thingy to clean the gravel. There's only a small amount of debri that comes up when i move the gravel around good. For the most part, it's fairly clean.

[Lexus]

Dont use the pouches. What I would do is do water changes once a week and keep up with the maintenance.

what exactly is a bottom feeding algae eater???? do you mean a corydora because they are not algae eaters nor really bottom debris eaters. They should be kept in a school of 6+.

How many of each fish do you have? and what exactly are your water perameters?

[Ownager2004]

Interesting... Im always wary of things like those pouches you mentioned. The most common way to deal with nitrates is by growing plants and doing regular water changes. Are you using an under gravel filter or a HOB filter?

[Alin10123]

My fish are in school's of 3. With exception to the pleco and the smaller algae eater.
A link to it's profile is here

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/cae.xml
That's a pic of what it looks like.

So basically, 3 big bellied mollies, 3 lyretail mollies, 3 platys, 3 guppies, 3 black finned tetras, one pleco, and one of the pics i just linked to. That and about 10 small fry that came from the big bellied mollys.

So go and return the pouch? So meanwhile there's no quick remedy? Do i need to clean the gravel while i'm changing the water once a week? There really isn't too much debris that comes up with i touch the gravel.

I guess i will try to add more plants.
I dont have an undergravel filter. I have one of those hang on back filter with the "bio media".

I appreciate the suggestions.
I will do another 25% water change today and see how it turns out in a few days.
Any other advice i forgot about?

thanks