zoas morphing/loosing color

[veselym]

I have had some frags either morph or fade in color and I am not sure what it is from

a colony of Bam Bam's have morphed with brighter orange spots so they look almost speckled, a small colony of fruit loops don't have any purple and look super pale

all of my zoanthids with and exception of some Sunny D's are in the lower 1/4 of my 55G tank with medium flow...I am also having some dull colors on sps/lps but I am getting growth on everything

could this be my lighting? I run 2 Vega's at 10' AWL...I run a 4 hr ramp up that favors blues, my max intensity is 24% white, 65% all blues, 9% red and 29% green. Max is ran 5 hours a day

here are my parameters:

ALK 9.9
Cal 420
Mag 1280
PH 7.9
Sal 1.026
Temp 79
NO3 .50
P04 0 (I don't have a good test kit but have no algae growth in main display)

I did mess with the lighting intensity 2 weeks ago...it was sitting at 30% white and 90% blue

I want to just leave the settings for a month and see what happens but not sure if my lighting is intense enough, too intense? not enough hours of max?

 

[veselym]

here are some pics, yeah they suck but you can see the fruit loops look pale and some weird brighter orange spots on the bam bam's...last pic is some juicy fruits and one polyp has morphed

maybe I am just crazy...nothing is reaching, only my Sunny D's are and they do open but don't show their lashes

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

Looks like to much light to me. try placing them somewhere where its slightly shaded..

 

[veselym]

I am only running 24% whites but maybe these vega's are more powerful than I thought...I also have some screen tops that cut out a bit of light as well

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

I would raise the light to about 14-16 inches above the water line, drop whites to 15-20percent and drop the affected zoas to areas with less light. observe for about a week or so and see what happens. They do have the typical signs of to much light. some zoas like more light than others. some zoas you have look fine as others dont.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

colors are washed out, they have nearly no stems or skirts, and not openning . all signs of to much light to me

 

[veselym]

Ok, I will lower the light...I can't raise the light as it is on a mount attached to the wall

will going down 10% on white stress the coral out or should I go down maybe 4% and see?

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

You can run zero white if you like. it wont stress out coral in anyway. yes try 10 percent for a while and see

 

[veselym]

Ok, I will lower the whites to 14% for 2 weeks and see what happens

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

Also relocate the affected zoas to areas with less intense light so they can recover

 

[veselym]

ok I will, I find it shocking that they are actually growing but I guess light will do that