My blue yuma is about 2 weeks old in my tank now. It looks far from melting, and in fact, is expanding quite well. I think I'm just fortunate to pick up a healthy specimen. Haven't had such luck with pink yumas though... still looking out for one.
Not really the regular eagle eyes... those would have orangey face with green skirt. This has a pink/reddish face with green skirt. If on, we'll trade on the day we scheduled to meet.
Wow... looks like a massive project in the works!
You might wanna consider replacing the bio balls with Bio-homme instead.
To top off what Lemon suggested, you can try using Vaseline on most metal parts. Works pretty well.