What's Up With My Utter Chaos?

[Cincyreefer513]

I bought this UC about 3 weeks ago. It was placed on the sand and looked great. One polyp was black in the middle and the other polyp was noticibly faded/gray when I bought it. All was well for the first week and a half when the bigger polyp began to umbrella. After a few days of looking like this, I finally glued it to a rock about 3 inches off the sand bed. It stayed the same for several days. The smaller polyp looked rough. Just before heading out one evening, I noticed what sorta looked like a flat worm. I snapped a photo, but had to go (3rd photo. Brown object with white dot just under the bad polyp). When I got home it wasn't there so I decided to take it off the rock and dip in revive. It was placed back on the sand. The next day, the smaller polyp looked terrible. Melted? The next day it was colorless. Late last night I noticed the polyp was gone and a couple large isopods we're on the plug.
Today, the larger polyp looks better(no umbrella) but it's noticibly smaller. There are 2 new polyps as well. One in the photo and one on the other side.
Any ideas as to what's wrong and a solution?
Tank is new to me (9 weeks), but established for a year prior.

Parameters that I know during the past few weeks:
Fritz RPM Blue Box salt
Temp 78
PH 8.0 API
Salinity 1.025 Refractometer
Ca 410-390 Salifert
Alk 8.3-8.6 ( most consistent at 8.45) Salifert
Nitrates 10-15 API
Nitrites/Ammonia 0 API
Lighting is 8.5hrs a day. OR lights. 55% blue, 3% white

Thanks in advance!

 

[thomas_neil]

I bought this UC about 3 weeks ago. It was placed on the sand and looked great. One polyp was black in the middle and the other polyp was noticibly faded/gray when I bought it. All was well for the first week and a half when the bigger polyp began to umbrella. After a few days of looking like this, I finally glued it to a rock about 3 inches off the sand bed. It stayed the same for several days. The smaller polyp looked rough. Just before heading out one evening, I noticed what sorta looked like a flat worm. I snapped a photo, but had to go (3rd photo. Brown object with white dot just under the bad polyp). When I got home it wasn't there so I decided to take it off the rock and dip in revive. It was placed back on the sand. The next day, the smaller polyp looked terrible. Melted? The next day it was colorless. Late last night I noticed the polyp was gone and a couple large isopods we're on the plug.
Today, the larger polyp looks better(no umbrella) but it's noticibly smaller. There are 2 new polyps as well. One in the photo and one on the other side.
Any ideas as to what's wrong and a solution?
Tank is new to me (9 weeks), but established for a year prior.

Parameters that I know during the past few weeks:
Fritz RPM Blue Box salt
Temp 78
PH 8.0 API
Salinity 1.025 Refractometer
Ca 410-390 Salifert
Alk 8.3-8.6 ( most consistent at 8.45) Salifert
Nitrates 10-15 API
Nitrites/Ammonia 0 API
Lighting is 8.5hrs a day. OR lights. 55% blue, 3% white

Thanks in advance!

Did you dip the coral when you got it?

If you saw a worm it could be a zoa eating nudibranch.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

Did you dip the coral when you got it?

If you saw a worm it could be a zoa eating nudibranch.

Yes, I always dip my new corals in Revive. The plug, along with a couple others I bought at one store, had several reddish brown flatworms on them. I pulled maybe a dozen off of the 3 plugs. The thing I saw the other night looked similar. I don't think it's a nudibranch, but I'm not super experienced yet either.

 

[GoReefin]

Might be your light a bit too strong.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

Might be your light a bit too strong.

It's possible I suppose, although all other corals are doing fine. I'm planning to rent a PAR meter from the lfs this evening so hopefully I can get my lighting dialed in.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

Here is a photo of the prior placement when it was on the rock.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

So I've taken PAR readings. Below are from the first 3 locations it had been:

While acclimating: B & W together 140, just blue 120

On the rock: B & W together 150, just blue 120

On the sand: B & W together 155, just blue 120

Lights are on 1hr just blue, 4hrs B & W, 3.5hrs just blue.

The UC was looking a bit sad yesterday (umbrella again) so I moved it to a spot that has PAR at 100 B & W and 70 just blue to see if lower lighting helps

So does the above light intensity look too much for an UC or can that be ruled out? All other zoas/palys are doing well. Most of which are in peak PAR in the 110-210 range.

 

[Cincyreefer513]

And just now, with lights off for the past 45 minutes, I noticed these 3 raised bumps on the head. Not sure what they are?

 

[wattson]

Looks like too high of light and low nutrients in the water...Probably a combination of both and you need to fix both these issues or you will never have any zoas or palys live for long. Sad part is, the polyps look like bare polyps glued to a frag plug, witch I never had any luck gluing bare polyps with glue to a frag plug...They all died or broke free to end in the overflow or wavemaker.
Curious to know how long of a time your tank has been running ?

 

[Cincyreefer513]

Looks like too high of light and low nutrients in the water...Probably a combination of both and you need to fix both these issues or you will never have any zoas or palys live for long. Sad part is, the polyps look like bare polyps glued to a frag plug, witch I never had any luck gluing bare polyps with glue to a frag plug...They all died or broke free to end in the overflow or wavemaker.
Curious to know how long of a time your tank has been running ?

All of my parameters are in the original post, but the basic nutrients are:
Nitrates 10-15 API
Ca 410-390
Alk 8.45

Everything else is doing great. There are 21 corals total. 13 are zoa/paly, a few shrooms, and the rest are lps. I've had the tank going on 10 weeks. It was bought already established. Previous owner had it for a year. I did add roughly 30lbs of dry rock to the 15lbs of live that was included.
The frag was definitely poorly done. I didn't notice how bad it was at the lfs until I brought it home and saw all of the glue when it was closed up.
Pics below were just taken. It shows the current status of the UC and all the other zoa/palys.

 

[GoReefin]

All of my parameters are in the original post, but the basic nutrients are:
Nitrates 10-15 API
Ca 410-390
Alk 8.45

Everything else is doing great. There are 21 corals total. 13 are zoa/paly, a few shrooms, and the rest are lps. I've had the tank going on 10 weeks. It was bought already established. Previous owner had it for a year. I did add roughly 30lbs of dry rock to the 15lbs of live that was included.
The frag was definitely poorly done. I didn't notice how bad it was at the lfs until I brought it home and saw all of the glue when it was closed up.
Pics below were just taken. It shows the current status of the UC and all the other zoa/palys.

Looking better than before. Seems to be responding to lower light.