Just ordered
some chaetomorpha from e-bay.
I'm not sure if it's a result of running the 'fuge, or just the maturing of the tank. But my nitrate's seems to be stabilizing and maybe even dropping very slightly. The last water change I did was Saturday and I tested 20ppm of Nitrate. I tested Nitrates again yesterday and it appeared that the result was somewhere between 10-20ppm. It was just a little lighter than the 20ppm and darker than 10ppm. Either way I took it as a good sign. Just the fact that it hasn't increased at all over five days I think is a good thing. I'll do another water change this weekend and hopefully the level will continue to drop.
I also relocated my single "tester" mushroom and it actually looks great today. I'm sure the nitrates and phosphates are still above ideal, but I'm seeing progress which is all I need.