Dull looking digitata

[CookieJar]

I bought a red digitata w/ blue tips 3 weeks ago at a LFS. In their display tank the coral looked fabulous. when I put it in my tank the red looked brown and the tips weren't a blue color anymore. the LFS owner says that you need 20K color temp in the lights to see the red color & blue tips, and that since I have T5 10K that's why it looks brown and dull

Do the 20K vs. 10k lighting temperatures make that much difference for seeing the colors or is it more likely the coral has gotten less healthy in my tank?

pH: 8.0
temperature 79.0
salinity 1.025
nitrate .10ppm
Calcium: 400
phosphate ?
alkalinity 5-6 (I think)
lighting: T5 11 hrs/ day, Acetenic 13 hrs./ day

Thanks!

 

[MNreefer386]

Alkalinity needs to be raised... closer to 10 dkh. The lighting could be the issue. I have corals that look dull and uninteresting in my flourescent lit tank that look awesome under 500 watts of 14k halide in my 58. How many T-5's are there? I would try adding more high kelvin t5 bulbs or more actinics. There are a ton of different colored t5s.. check the lighting and filtration forum for more info.