2nd Attempt at Power Filter Removal - Part III

I double-checked with the wife about halfway through my shift for a report on how cloudy the tank was.  She said it wasn't cloudy at all and that it actually looked good.

Sigh of relief.

Finally got home, and yes it does look good.  Perhaps the combination of removing the power filter AND changing the water did the trick.  This time the tank has a chance to start at near-zero readings (at least with ammonia, nitrites and phosphates) with the power filter gone.  I also checked the skim cup.  It's at almost an inch I'd say.  That would bring my new "daily skim norm" to at least 1 inch, maybe 1.25 to 1.5 inches.  We'll see.

The daylights have long been off today, as have the actinics.  The moonlit tank is what greeted me upon arrival home tonight.  Granted, it's different lighting (same exposure though), but here's how the tank looks now:

Water has cleared up. No light beams shining down,
at least that are perceptible to the camera like in the prior two photos.

I'm anxious (and then again not) to see what water readings are going to be for the next week or two.  And then it'll be nice to know the new tank's 'routine' so that I can lighten up on the testing, getting back to once or twice a week.  I think until I get a bigger skimmer, it might be stretching it to check once a week on a continual basis.  Perhaps I can get by with 3 tests every 2 weeks, but I dare not go further than that, at least until it finishes up this newest mini-cycle.

I'm mostly curious how nitrates are going to behave.  I still had a reading of 10ppm after removing the filter and then performing a 15% water change.  So it's going to take at least one other water change to remove traces of them.  With the power filter, I didn't seem to gain much ground with water changes unless nitrates were at least 20ppm.  I'm curious of the headway I'll be making with water changes now.  If after another couple changes I still have traces of nitrates immediately following the water change, I'll probably head down to the LFS and pick up a fist-full of chaeto macroalgae.

Also due to the removal of the filter, I also fasted the inhabitants today.  Since no one ate today, I should probably feed them something that everyone enjoys tomorrow - so not ZooPlex.  I think a mysis cube will do well.  I'm going to put them on a rotating regiment - mysis one day, krill the next, then zooplex.  Rinse, repeat.  We'll see how the variety of diet goes with the inhabitants and the water column.  And for the remainder of this week, as hard as it may be to keep my finger out of it, I will refrain from feeding the anemone directly.  Time to put the Clowns to work.

The aiptasia-dodging shrimp pair are another story, however - I mean, come on!  Do I seriously need an army of shrimp to rid the tank of aiptasia???

Don't answer that.