On SwiMs first couple of attempts, all went well, but on his 3rd attempt, the lye doesn't seem to be settling onto the bottom but is staying as a soloution.

Can anyone shed any light on this, does it really matter or is something definitly wrong?

Thanks.

The only time the lye will lock on the bottom is when you put way too much. Now that you are beginning to see a bit, try to use just enough of a 20% lye solution to bring the pH up to higher than 12.5. Curb just wrote the nano that way to make sure you based it enough without having to check it and see.