Help with 1 week old 10g nano

[Nixon]

i can only spot 2 on the same rock. and i've been reading a lot of mixed comments about them. some people are saying they die off after awhile. others say they sting everything even you and leave rashes/swelling. some others say they have them and they don't bother anything in their tank...maybe i'll get a buddy to touch it and see what happens haha. i dont know what i want to do with it yet. thanks for that link though. some good reading. any other suggestions guys?

[Nixon]

i'm not sure if this is normal, but i just got my light today and when i have it on, i can see a bunch of little particles floating around in the water. is this normal? it makes my water look constantly dirty almost. i have it as an "open top" tank. is that what could be contributing to this? if anybody has any ideas, please let me know thanks!

i'm running:
- about 15-20lbs of live rock that was in an established tank before i got it.

- rio nano skimmer
- maxijet 400 powerhead
- current USA 80W 50/50 power compact.

p.s.
tank is now about 2 1/2 weeks old.

[Midknight]

Copied post over to this and found most of my Q's ansered.
What salt did you use and what are your mesurments at?
It the water out of the older tank or is it new water?
How much skimmate are you getting?

[Nixon]

salinity's about 1.024, ph was 8.1 last time i measured it (few days ago), the water i'm using is out of my friend's tank (changed on monday). i do water changes (about 50%) weekly. i rarely have to empty the skimmate from my skimmer but that's only beacuse the catch bottle is massive. i get about 50-100ml in a week? give or take some.

[Midknight]

I would stop doing water changes for a week or so and see if it clears up.
Also start using fresh water that you make.
If you are pulling water from your friends tank for your changes you are just swapping you dirty water for his.

[Nixon]

does the fact that i have an open top play a part in this? almost seems like there's "dust" on the surface of the water

[andsoitgoes]

Nope. Shouldn't. If you want, get a hagen surface skimmer or find an attachment for the Rio that will skim the surface. I got a bit of the gunk buildup on the surface when I took mine away, now that it's back, it's fabu, and scum free.

You have to realize that all that gunk is what SHOULD be going into the skimmer, but since (for some reason) these skimmers are designed to suck water like a standard HOB, they miss all that stuff. I'm pretty positive adding one of those on will change things quite a bit. It's 15 bucks well spent.