Rasta Zoa Needs Help, Wound, 1st Corals

[ReefStuff]

Hello,
I am new to reef keeping. And this is my 1st post outside of the "hello" post. Apologies if I make a mistake or leave out something needed to help. Let me know what I can do to help you, help me .
As stated this is one of my 1st corals I got 10/13/24. Rasta Zoa Frag. I have attached pictures from a couple angles and tried my best to make them as clear as I could with regular lighting to aid in helping these little guys out.
10/13 - Purchased Frag (Plus a couple more), returned home and setup a dip with Coral Rx. Temp acclimated, then I dipped the Rasta, Blue Hornet and Mohawk Zoa frags at the same time, all together. I brushed the plugs with a toothbrush as much as I could without risking damage. I used a colander method to agitate the corals. I gave them a separate rinsing with my tank water in a 2nd bowl, than a 3rd rinse, in a 3rd bowl.
I looked into the dip bowl as was pretty shocked TBH. Lots of "stuff". I am new to this and have zero idea what I was looking for at though. No pics of the bowl but I did notice a few things I can try and explain. Any info or links on anything would be great.
Tiny, very, very small starfish (1)

Small potential worms? Maybe 3/16"-1/4" long. Kinda of tan/clear. So small I couldn't actually tell what they were if I am honest. (maybe 5)

Tan small almost square flat (ish) things. Nothing moved, but seemed "fleshy", or could be dirty slim chunks? (20+)

Small actual worm, 1/4" long (ish) clear with a reddish middle body (possibly organs). seemed like it had a lot of tiny legs out each side.

All of that gave me concern. I decided (maybe this was a bad Idea, let me know) to throw out all the dip and rinse, start over and do it again immediately with all the corals. Round 2 had far less "stuff" in bowl 1 but still a decent amount, floaties in bowl 2, nothing in bowl 3. So, I did it a 3rd time, fresh dip and rinse again. Finally Bowl 1 was clean except a couple floaties, bowl 2 and 3 were clean.
Introduced frags to tank on frag holders. All of the corals opened up pretty well within about 30 minutes. Rasta opened almost immediately. After 24 hours all the Zoa frags were moving a lot in the current higher up in the tank, so I moved them lower. 10/14, 24 hours later they all looked good.
Onto the issue. I notice a discoloration on an area on the Rasta (top middle). I decide to rotate the frag in the holder and look at the opposite side. I take pics and think what I am seeing is the rock the initial frag was put on, than glued to the plug and the zoa grew over it. This has a small bit of what appears to be hair algae in it also. Then I notice this hole in the flesh of one polyp. The flesh seems to be pulling away, or like something tore its way out in a hurry. The polyp with the wound looks to be opening still and doing very well considering.
So I take some pics, crop and zoom, thats when I lose my mind. I see white dots, hole in my Zoa stalk, hair algae, and think maybe these are sponges on here and not rock? Sorry if this was too long, hoping to provide enough info. Tank is 10 weeks old, cycled with clown and bacteria for 4 weeks, added CUC for 2 week, added some green chromis for 1 week, added a blue hippo for 1 week. Sat for last 2 weeks. Stable parameters but only decided to start testing 6 weeks ago. 10% water changes every week using RPM Promix Blue box and RO/DI water. I have 30 gallons premade and set to the same temp and SG as my tank.

Tank Parameters as of 10/15/24:

SG -1.025 (34.9ppt) - Tested with a handheld digital meter
Temp: 78.8 (Potentially 78.3 after Ice water test)
PH 8.2 (Been 8.0 every test until today)
Alk 8.0 (Slow decline from 8.2 at test #1)
Nitrate 10 (Slow increase from 0 at test #1)
Phos .03 (Been .01 until today)
Calcium 420 (slow decrease from 450 at test #1)
Mag 1450 (Zero change, seems high but I am not 100%)

Ammonia and Nitrate are and have been 0.0 since I started testing.

Pics:
10/14 - Sorry about the color. They seemed to be doing good, the purple (brain) on top odd and I though maybe its a new polyp forming. Noticed something "else" on the backside but assumed polyp also.

10/15: Using flash and turned off blue lights. The brain is totally different color, clearly not a polyp. I see a white spot that I never saw that seems so obvious.

10/15 Rotated 180 degrees, Now I see pink "things", weird brown/tan things and more. Is the brown stuff he rock it was attached to originally? Or a dead polyp? It seems very solid. Closed up because I moved it.

10/15 Different angle. Hair algae in top of "brain". Brain seems to be on top of purple Zoa stalk. White dots (could be sand that does lift around my tank) Pink/brown things. (rock with coraline? or sponge?) Brown stuff seems tobe embedded in frag glue. But I see this hole and the flesh pulling away on this one stalk. Notice that polyp is opening well in pic 1 and 2.

Please help me figure out the issue here. I am pretty sure one major component is me and my lack of knowledge. Anyone willing to chime in, I am all ears. I would prefer to learn my mistakes and what to look for sooner rather than later and not develop bad habits.

Thank you
ReefStuff

 

[sixty_reefer]

Hi, you will eventually let something into your tank there is a lot of beneficial organisms that will enter your aquarium via coral, some of the main ones can be encountered on a thread on here regarding hitchhikers, it will definitely be worth having a read for a awareness point of view.

That said I believe in the first pic you have one Aipatasia, one of the most common pests in the hobby.

 

[Euphyllia97]

The “brain” looks a bit like sponge to me. Dots indeed look a bit like sand on the picture. (i don’t think it is) But Make a research on zoapox

 

[Bosreef]

Honestly and I mean this with the most respect. You need to chill. Awesome to learn but just relax

 

[ReefStuff]

Hi, you will eventually let something into your tank there is a lot of beneficial organisms that will enter your aquarium via coral, some of the main ones can be encountered on a thread on here regarding hitchhikers, it will definitely be worth having a read for a awareness point of view.

That said I believe in the first pic you have one Aipatasia, one of the most common pests in the hobby.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

The “brain” looks a bit like sponge to me. Dots indeed look a bit like sand on the picture. (i don’t think it is) But Make a research on zoapox

Will do, thank you.

Honestly and I mean this with the most respect. You need to chill. Awesome to learn but just relax

ok. Will do. But maybe you could add some insight into why I should not be worrying about this Zoa? Potentially Zoa pox, aptasia, and sponges are not a concern? On my way to hitchhikers thread. Figured I would ask.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

I don't see the aptaisia that others are seeing, but I'd follow direction on aptaisia-X for eradication.

For the rest of the pictures, it looks like you have a sponge. Beneficial filter feeder.

 

[mdpitts]

I would be a little freaked out by that too. It looks gross. The growth on the side almost, ALMOST looks like a little sea cucumber that might have hardened up and died on there. That might be crazy but it popped into my mind. Did you try to scrape the brain stuff? Is it hard? I sort of skimmed your post I apologize if you already answered.

 

[ReefStuff]

I would be a little freaked out by that too. It looks gross. The growth on the side almost, ALMOST looks like a little sea cucumber that might have hardened up and died on there. That might be crazy but it popped into my mind. Did you try to scrape the brain stuff? Is it hard? I sort of skimmed your post I apologize if you already answered.

I pulled the Rasta Zoa and Dipped it in Coral RX. The Brain was soft and came right off. The larger/taller piece was hard and came off. Returned to tank and waited a few days. Rasta still looked pretty dismal and would not open. Did a H202 Dip on the Rasta after not seeing any benefits from Coral RX. One polyp was barley hanging onto the rest after H202. This was the problem Polyp, White spot and hole in flesh in my pics. I fragged that one polyp and put it on a new holder. The remaining Rasta have opened up fully and more than before. The fragged Polyp is doing the same. Opening fully and looking very good now.

I made some other discoveries along the way. Namely the flow was insane in my tank. 55 gallon tank and two 3400GPH wavemakers plus the return at 350GPH. I was not aware that these DC pumps operate at about a 30% minimum. Mine have 20 setting for "speed". I assumed that was 5% increments. I had them set at 8 thinking 40%. Well, that was closer to 70% each. They are also knock off brands so the "programming" may be something to be desired. I estimate the flow was around 70-80x. I now set them at 2 and all the corals have responded very welll. Everything is open a lot more now.

Thinking of getting a couple smaller (maybe 1800GPH) wave makers to replace the 3400GPH. If this 30% is accurate, that means the slowest flow my tank could ever have is about 2500GPH. That means Everything but SPS may have some issues. So smaller pumps might be needed.

 

[Just John]

They look great!