Are zoas supposed to be dull color?

[Emaychzee]

I got some blow pop, nuclear waste and Bambam zoas from an online shop and they came in looking a bit rough with super dull colors so I had them in quarantine for a few weeks under a weaker light meant for a fuge. When I put them in my main tank, no matter how I set my lights, they still wouldn't color up like the photos from the site. They have some color but it's just so dull. There's no definition between the different colors on each polyp - the bam bams are just a uniform neon orange, the nuclear wastes are just an olive drab and the blow pops are Grey with a touch of orange. Compared to my LPS and ricordeas, you can barely tell the zoas from the rock.

It's a small 12" cube running cheap hipargero leds with blue at 3/10 and white at 1/10 for 7 hrs a day. Could it be the temperature getting warmer as summer arrives? Did they puke out their zooxanthellae in quarantine or shipping? I feed reef roids once a week and do a 40% wc every 2 weeks. I've seen one or two polyps expelling a dark brown pellet from their mouths. Maybe I need to start dosing magnesium? Iodine? Kalk? What's going on? I must be messing up something, zoas can't be this underwhelming in real life, right?

 

[Albertan22]

Zoas often look brown and drab under whiter lights. Try cranking the blues and see what they look like. The effect should be immediate.

 

[Mike N]

Even under white lights they should have more color pop.
Some vendors have holding tanks where corals are moved after they're photographed. The lights on these holding tanks aren't nearly as strong.
Happened to me on an order and they did color up within a few weeks.

 

[Duberz]

Looks like you are running a white spectrum. Crank up the blues.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

As others have said, cranking up blue light will help. I personally like something around the 18k-20k look.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Also, it's the zoanthelle are what produces the color and if they have been in your qt without the blue spectrum they needed for the zoanthelle, they are basically starved. Majority of their nutrition comes from photosynthesis in the blue light spectrum. Give them some time in your DT and move them up slowly. Keep us posted on their progress! Take pics so you can see the color progression.