Originally Posted by
Clay12340
If your tank is cycling you shouldn't have anything in it. What are your other levels at? If ammonia and nitrite are at 0, then your tank most likely cycled.
You might have just had a snail or hermit or something die and pollute the tank if it was a sudden spike. If you recently disturbed your sand bed that can also cause a nitrate spike. Keep an eye on the nitrates and see if they rise again or if they stay mostly steady. A continuous rise means the tank is overloaded and either needs less bio-load or more means of handling it.
A skimmer will help reduce organics in the water, but it isn't really a requirement. On these little tanks regular water changes usually keep the organics down without a problem. There are a lot of good options out there if you do want to invest in a skimmer, but be sure to read up on reviews first. Some of the skimmers out there are junk.
Regardless of your nutrient issues you might have some serious husbandry problems ahead. What species is that angel? The only yellow angel I'm aware of is another name for a Queen Angelfish(Holacanthus ciliaris) which gets to be an enormous fish and requires many many gallons even at a small size. I'm far from an expert on angels, but I don't believe there are any that would be suitable for a 10 gallon tank.
The star is another potential problem. Most of them require very large and well established tanks. In a 10 gallon anything aside from the micro stars that are often part of a clean up crew will mostly likely starve to death.
Well the Angel was purchased after the clown's mate died because I was told I couldn't introduce another clown into the tank. The angel is a Centropyge heraldi Yellow pygmy Angel and so far has acclimated excellently. As far as water quality goes everything else is perfect my ph is 8.3 my ammonia is 0 my alkalinity is a little high but I think the iodine for my coral may have raised it slightly. Nitrites are 0.2 but my Nitrates are hovering at 8 right now. It only concerns me because I was told high nitrates will kill crustaceans. As far as the starfish goes I didn't research it enough before I puchased it and realized that he is probably on the slow flush!! The LFS doesn't take stuff back though,
so to remedy this I have been thinking of keeping a harlequin shrimp. I also like the way they look and have no trouble supply a star once a week for thier sustenance.
Anyway I didn't know if a small skimmer would be the answer for me or if I should get a couple cleaner clams for the nitrate control issue, what do you think?