tank specs this morning vs now - what a change!

[gbmortie]

This morning I had:
55 gallon tank
ehiem canister filter
HOB for running carbon and pads (changed often)
2 maxijet 900 power heads
about 60-70 lbs LR arranged in the "rock wall" look which I didn't like
1-2 inch sandbed
130w PC lighting

As of this evening I have:
55 gallon tank
remora aquac skimmer
HOB right now running just floss that I am changing every few hours, will run carbon also
LR arranged in the "sort of random pile" look which is much better for the lighting and placement of corals.
260w PC lighting

Livestock is all the same:
2 percs
1 6 line wrasse
1 LM blenny
asst snails and hermits

Is it normal for the skimmer to start producing right away? I had read, and was totally prepared for it not to make anything for a few days but within 30 minutes there was lots of foam and within hours the cup was full of yucky stuff, very dark colored. I'm skimming as dry as it goes and it's still producing skimate. I thought it was more normal for it to produce next to nothing for a while.

Yup, I ditched my canister filter. I don't think it was doing me any good at all and it might have been doing me some harm. I have kinda considered turning into some kind of reactor but eh....I don't wanna mess with that right now. I'll be watching for a mini cycle since I did take that out.

I'm excited, it looks great. I did a 12 gallon water change along with all this and I sucked out as much junk as possible since all the rock was out at the time. Currently I'm keeping things stirred up pretty good with the turkey baster so every time it settles I blow the stuff up into the water again to be sucked up by the HOB or the skimmer since I am cleaning the floss in the HOB often. I figured this was a good chance to get a lot of junk out so I'm planning to go through a whole bag of floss in the next couple of days.