Why are my rastas dull?

[PugsAndFish]

I picked up 2 frags of rastas - one from a store and one from a hobbyist. The one from the hobbyist seems fully grown and is very colorful. The one from the store seems younger and have grown in polyp size since I got them but the color is very dull. Will they color up as they age or is it just that the frag is dull and it is what it is?

 

[ndrwater]

Corals adjust to their environment. Sounds like your existing are happy. I would think the store Rastas will get better color with time

 

[John3]

All my zoas get better coloring with time. Placement is key for certain zoas as some like high light and some lower.

 

[Waynerock]

I gotta keep my rastas low or they do that

 

[PugsAndFish]

I gotta keep my rastas low or they do that

Sorry you mean low placement gives you better color?

 

[Waynerock]

Sorry you mean low placement gives you better color?

Yes sorry

 

[DSC reef]

What type of lighting are you using? Hornets would get dull with to much light but rastas always kept bright colors no matter how high or low in the tank they were. One thing that would change was polyp size though. It may be a spectrum change causing the dullness of the polyps. Any pics?

 

[OhDumb]

My Rastas are under about 120 PAR and in high flow and are doing the best they ever have. I have kept them in lower light levels and lower flow and they didn't do to well.

 

[PugsAndFish]

What type of lighting are you using? Hornets would get dull with to much light but rastas always kept bright colors no matter how high or low in the tank they were. One thing that would change was polyp size though. It may be a spectrum change causing the dullness of the polyps. Any pics?

I'm using a Hydra 26HD. I downloaded the lower variant Saxby setting and dragged down the intensity since my tank is all softies and only 10 gallons and thus shorter.

My hornets which are on the lower half of my tank and seem to be okay.

Here's a pic. My photography skills aren't great and I used a filter to take out the blues. Even then you can tell the rastas up front are brighter. Just the tentacles alone are bright yellow while the ones in the back are a dull brown/yellow. The ones in the back did grow a ton though since I got them about 2 weeks ago.