need some advice! please

[Ryan Joel Smith]

shrimp chips* The store i buy all of my livestock from takes care of their livestock intending it to end up (with some water) in my tank. I have found for myself by way of trial and lack of error i am safe but i can see there being potential problems like you mentioned. I had an algae bloom early on that covered now more than 1.5 square inch area i syphoned it up and have yet to see any problems unless this nitrate issue is a big one? My main concern is whether or not i need to be worried if nitrates were between 5ppm and 10ppm. I am doing a ten percent water change tomorrow hoping it will address any problems (tank+sump volume is 70gal).

Also, i had been running a skimmer on my tank all the way up until monday this week when i had a prob with it and it was down for until late yesterday. Could this be where the nitrate spike began seeing as my system (not very mature) probably was relying on the skimmer to remove a good percentage of the nitrates.

Lastly, should i run some carbon? Not sure if it would be completely irrelevant in assisting me with my problem.