acan help (irritated, receding corals)

I got some acans about 2 weeks ago or so and they seemed to be happy in the tank (puffed out) but never really ate. I tried cyclopeeze and mysis and they never really took any of it. Well, the last couple days one of the frags has receded a lot and hasn't looked happy in the least. Today, another one of the three has started this process. I'm left wondering what could be going on. My candy cane coral has also deflated completely over the last couple days and you can tell it was happy as the one head has 5 mouths on it (I got it with 1 on that head). The guy I ordered the acans from also gave me some zoas which seemed happy but also have shrunken even though they're relatively close to my other zoas which are mostly out.
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0-5
pH - 8.3
alk - 9dKh
calcium - 440
temp - 78

The only thing I can think is I regenerated my Purigen and added it back to the tank about 5-6 days ago and I'm wondering if I didn't get all the bleach out. It was rather spent when I took it out, soaked it over night in 1:1 bleach:RODI, then soaked it a day in RODI+Prime. I don't think the addition of Prime to the tank would've done this, but I can't think of much else that would do this. Perhaps if the new Purigen sucked out a bunch of something the acan liked that spike could've caused something?

I do have them under LED lighting, and reduced the photoperiod by 2 hours for today. The actinics should be on for 10 hours today, with whites on for 8. I also noticed the analog timers we were using seemed to have some of the buttons pressed in a ways (not completely, but perhaps enough) to possibly kick on some lights over night so I reset that portion.
They're near the bottom of the tank and out of the majority of flow.

Any other ideas?

Here's the worst one:

10ish days ago:


Next acan that's decided it doesn't like life (today/yesterday):

10ish days ago:


This is two acan colonies (bottom right is the "best" right now) and the candy cane.




10ish days ago:



Blastomussa merletti loving life...


Brain Coral...


Even the RBTA


I did mount them to rock about a week ago (3-4 days before the recession) and some of that was base rock so perhaps a spike in phosphate? The tank got cloudy and everything seemed to shrink up for 10-20 minutes until it cleared and then almost everything popped back out (the RBTA got mad and pouted under a rock for the night).

 

It may be all you have guessed or they are just in a cycle of doing close and will open soon. I suggest staying with the new lighting schedule permanently if the change takes you to 10 hours actinics and 8 hours whites.

 

I switched from PC lighting. Those ran for 14-16 hours (considering they were weak lights, I guess it wasn't harsh), but maybe I was blasting them with too much light. I also dimmed them down. One side of the candy cane corals is showing a bit of inflation (nothing I'm thrilled about) but at least it doesn't look anorexic.

 

If the light change was at the same time as the start of the change in the corals then it would be for certain. The regeneration of the Purigen may have changed the clarity of the water enough to cause light reaction from the corals also. You have some corals that have similar requirements that are doing well so it leads me to think that they all were in that deflated kind of mood. Try a more meaty food for the Acans. Turn the flow way down or off to feed them.

 

It appears you have some Byropsis growing on the brain and the stalk of the candy cane. It will out compete the coral on the skeleton. Although that is not the issue with your current coral problem, it may prove to be a problem in the future.

 

The lighting was done 2.5-3 weeks ago (before the acans were ever in the tank). I was also wondering about if some bleach were still in it, but there's enough Prime in the regen step to hopefully eliminate that. I shut the flow completely off and let the cyclopeeze and mysis fall out of a turkey baster... it was literally laying on them for 20 minutes.

Yeah, that's been there since I got them about 2.5 months ago.

 

I dimmed the LEDs down further, removed the Purigen and rotated the rock so the acan is lower in the water. Any other suggestions? I really want them to make it.

 

I'd really like some more opinions. Salinity is 1.025 (refractometer). I'm debating a rather large water change tonight just in case it is something in the water (maybe like 30%)

 

Just give them some time to adjust to the changes.

 

so no more changes or dips or anything? I was contemplating a water change (since tomorrow is regular water change day), I could just do twice what I normally do