doppelganger

Mandarin! PS. Hopefully I can still enter if I have a US shipping address. If not I understand.

not sure as aiptasia-x is suppose to be safe for reef use. So if it were to kill palys and zoas, I feel like we'd hear more issues with using it. Not 100% sure on that that. I think a safer bet would be to use super glue. Maybe just let it close and glue over the stalk. Might be hard under water tho. I think this way might be safer too and the palytoxin won't be much of an issue. Better than cutting it up.

pH is fine. For API, the tests are usually fairly simple. I'll just write it out to make sure your doing it properly: Alkalinity (KH): Put 5 ml in the tube. Start adding single drops at a time. Shake/swirl after each drop and make sure you count the number of drops. Compare the number drops against the chart. Make sure your using the KH test got GH or wutever. Calcium: Put 5 ml in the tube. Add 10 drops of bottle 1 and shake/swirl the tube for 10 sec. Shake bottle 2 for 10 sec then add single drops at a time. Shake/swirl after each drop and make sure you count the number of drops. Compare the number of drops against the chart. It's highly unlikely to get those results from IO salt. Unless you got a REALLY messed up batch of salt or ur test kits are off. It's unlikely that both test kits would be off as well. If you're doing the tests properly, make a new batch of salt water (try and mix the salt up in the bucket first). Test the new saltwater after everything has dissolved and see what you get. Also, are you using RO/DI water to mix your salt? I ask this cuz if you use tap water, sometimes already contains some alk and calcium depending on your local water source.

it's a different type of paly. Those ones can extend quite a bit and and smother the zoa's. Like Shadow said, they can be pretty invasive. Personally, I would either: A. get rid of it (be careful as they known for being high in palytoxins) B. frag the zoa colony and put a piece some where else in your tank so you can have both. Also maybe put that paly on a separate island so it doesn't take over a large chunk of your rock work

Looks like favites to me. war coral is just a name for a red and green version of favites. Plus it can grow in lots of different ways including mounds.

you can actually see the color of toadstool in more natural lighting in the january 2010 FTS image at the bottom of that thread. Just looks like a typical tan toadstool. It's definitely more saturated with a purplish hue in ur image posted. Like Mr. Microscope said, probably just a combination of lighting and photoshop. It's a beautiful tank tho.

probably just a chaetopterid/hair worm

They should disappear after a while. I wouldn't really worry about them unless they're really causing havoc on coral. Otherwise cchsoracle is correct. Super glue would work well of you can zero in on it's position accurately.

Exactamundo!

ditto I love them. Mine eat algae plus the annoying coralline that grows super fast everywhere on the glass.

if you're specifically looking for hearty LPS then I'd say acans are a good option as well. I'd probably stay away from NPS until you know what you're doing. That being said, even those some of the lps can tolerate lower light, doesn't mean they don't thrive in higher light. It'd be better of u had something more powerful but if you want to give it a shot then ya, a duncan, candy cane, acan or whatever cheap small frag is good.

looks more like knopia polyps to me but it's kind of hard to tell. Either way, cool little find. Definitely doesn't look like anything bad. Would be neat to see them grow out.

stylophora doesn't have that kind of branching pattern. Google green stylo and green birdsnest and you'll see the difference.

if you really do want to get rid of it, sponges usually don't react well to air. That is, if your rock is accessible.