Sandra - Excellent - as you have properly noted, not everything works for everyone - we all have slightly different environments and cultural challenges. I'm glad you fessed up - we don't learn from each other if we don't all share our experiences - both good and bad. Who knows? I may even try bark again on some phals one day myself? (not sphag though!)
I cannot imagine any phal dying in two weeks in any media unless it was crown rotting or litteraly sitting in water/media "soup" as you have noted. Maybe the type of coir you used and the percentages of ingredients also played a role in the media conditions? I know Sharyn also noted previously that she experienced some poor results with a particular product she had tried early in the learning process. Hopefully - we all continue to learn together. When you said, "droopy" were you just speaking of the new leaf tilted sideways? If so, I would agree with all the other comments - probably just the leaf reacting to the direction of the light. When I think of the word "droopy" and apply it to phal leaves I think more of them feeling thin and limp - not the direction that they are tilted. Of course we can't tell that from a picture.
PS - like to send you some nice COLD Oregon weather and you could return some of that Florida sunshine!