I bought the 2x96k Coralife lights I said I would. I kept the old lights in place too, to make sure I'm over the 4 watts / gal recommendation. The anemone moved up closer to the top of the rock yesterday, and opened up more than I've seen in open in weeks. I'll take that as a good sign, but I don't think I'm out of the woods yet.
I'm still dealing with the algae problem. I talked to the LFS folks, and they said to uproot as much of the hair algae as possible. If I don't, the problem will grow faster than the lawnmower blennie, crabs, snails, and shrimp can eat it. I pulled out 90% of what was in there, and I'm hoping they cleanup crew can take over from here. I hate to think about how many brittlestars I lost when I took out the algae (and sand it was attached to)
The protein skimmer is still not foaming; it's been running about a week. I have it set on the highest setting (as far as bubbles go), and checked how the exact model is set at the LFS. Theirs produces foam, mine doesn't. I suppose it's possible that the light fish load I have in that tank is not producing a lot of DOS, and maybe the algae is absorbing what little there is?
I was too tired to test the water last night, but I'll run through a complete range of test when I get home to check the Nitrate level. I was having a problem with that in the small tank, maybe it is happening in the larger tank too.