[in_a_days]

The system has been running continually for about a week and a half now. No leaks anywhere, but, as tbittner predicted I do have a little splashing and creep. My buddy is going to shave down the front of a 45 and put basically a "shield" in front of the return drain. Hopefully this will eliminate most of the splashing.

I'm not exactly sure what it was, but I think I may have introduced something unhealthy into the tank when I first got everything going. I didn't notice at first, but after a couple days I noticed my "tester" mushroom, which had really been looking excellent, was shriveling up and shrinking. I also noticed my lion "coughing" or "yawning" which he usually only does when he's shedding his slime. So I prepped a big batch of change water and the next day and two turbo snails had bit the dust...

Ammonia and Nitrite were zero, nitrate was 20 PH is/was 8.2. So I did a big water change and the lion hasn't shown any signs of irritation since. But the little shroom has not really recovered. It's still got it's color, but it's only a fraction the size it was only about 10 days ago. The fish seem fine and happy, but I'm still worried that something might not be right. I've done a couple subsequent water changes, just in case there was something harmful in the water. I've read that water changes can disturb corals so I don't know if this might be the reason.

Only other possibility is another "issue" I've noticed. The tank is set up in a corner near a sliding glass door. The glass is poorly insulated and this part of the house/room tends to get a little colder when it's really chilly outside. So for the last week or longer I was noticing that in the morning the tank was about three degrees (73) from where I usually keep it (76). A couple days ago I did a little work to insulate the tank and it has been much more stable since.

But what I know for sure is that the lionfish's irritation started a day or two after starting the sump. And it's been winter for much longer than that.

So that's where everything is right now. My fish look good and happy, but my little mushroom does not look good. My nitrates have been testing between 10-20 for the last week or so. I'm not sure if I should continue with weekly water changes to keep the nitrates down, or if I should give the mushroom a chance to recover.

To add to all that the LFS has a little fish that I would really like to add to the fuge. It's a Green Clown Goby. I know I said I was reluctant to get a Goby, but these guys aren't voracious sand-sifters. He'll eat some pods, but he should not rearrange the sand bed on a daily basis. But of course, I'm not sure that everything in my tank is well so I don't want to introduce anything new.

Not quite sure what I should do/not do right now.