"High End" Palys losing color

[240gallons]

I picked up a couple of frags of cultured palys from a LFS. The Palys were labeled indo / cultured. They were defiantly maricultured as they palys were on a 3-4 inch homemade growing plate.

The palys had great coloration but 5-6 weeks later are looking blah.... purples have browned and almost ALL of the little pigmentation in the body of the paly has disappeared.

I have these in 2 separate systems 1 running LED's and another running T5's. I would say the corals in the LED tank look worse.

All other corals look wonderful. Any ideas on these type of Zoanthids / palys? The other zoanthids I have had look great.

These are pics when the corals first came to the LFS. Yes, these pics DO enhance the palys but not that much......

 

[240gallons]

I am pretty anal with my water parameters....I have no stonies in these tanks and parameters are textbook normal for reef aquarium. Use IO salt frequent changes 30-40%. Bulbs were replaced in June well before the addition of these palys.

Temp is running a little high @ 88 degrees.

What is it with these specific type of palys? do they like dirty water? Clean water? High lighting? Low Lighting? Something in the ocean I cannot provide them in the glass box?

Thanks

 

[650-IS350]

Did you acclimate them properly to your lighting scheme, meaning start from the bottom away from the middle or strongest point of your lights ? or if LED's start the lighting at low setting then slowly ramp up as time passes? giving the polyps time to acclimate to the stronger lighthing

 

[240gallons]

Yes. Actually the palys in my frag tank with the LEDs are reaching a bit and could use more light. Do these larger palys like more or less light than a standard vietnam zoanthid?

 

[650-IS350]

They vary to be honest, I let my Z's and Ps tell me wether they want more light, more flow etc. You as the reefer need to adjust things accordingly, if they are reaching and losing color you might move them up in a staggered manner to ensure they're not immediately introduced to the highest lighting possible.

I had some aqua blue palys reach so every couple weeks I moved it up several inches, now theyre no longer stretching