What's wrong with my rics?

[Hurgoth]

I've had some of these ricordia for a long time. What is weird, is that I'll have two of the same color morphs on the same rock, and one will be nice looking and fully extended, while the other is just sort of sitting there. I was wondering if they look healthy to you? I've tried moving some of these around and haven't really got any different results. The only thing that I have been able to play with has been flow, and that does make a difference. Still, that makes no sense since some of these are literally like 3" away from each other.

My lighting is 20k 400w MH with 165w PC actinic. temp stays 78-81.

Here are some pics, though not very good ones:

These guys just never seem to extend very much, I've had these three for over a year. The bottom right one just split finally.

These guys on the right have faded a bit in color, and though they seem open, they almost seem too stretched out.

Pic of the ones above with the MH off.

This pink one is sweet, the colors are nicer than in the pic. Problem is, it doesn't really open very large and hasn't grown in over a year and a half.

These blues are nice and open and only a few inches away from the other blues which are not.

This yellow/orange/green guy opens nicely. Until recently, it was on the same rock with one of the same morph which was not opening much at all. I thought that maybe it was because one was over crowding the other, so I split the rock. Still, the other is the same size.

What do you guys think? Am I overreacting? Do you think the lighting is too intense? I see pictures of some other peoples rics on here and the colors are amazing and there are bunch growing on the same rock, etc...

 

[chrisstie]

How close are they to the lights? With any coral after its been in your tank a while the milage you get on color will vary from tank to tank, lighting to lighting

Yours seem strong enough for anything to live in but they look pretty fine to me- not stressed. The thing with Fl rics is that they will grow into odd twisty shapes with their weird connected more than one mouth thing.. To that end they look normal to me.

Maybe someone else can share their opinion?

Not sure what to tell you on growth. I had to have mine in the SAME EXACT place for a long time before it'd think about growing- then it went and made another mouth and cloned itself finally. Some are just slow I suppose

 

[BigScott]

sweet pics , whats the red one in the 5th pic.. its cool lookin..

scott

 

[Hurgoth]

The red one is just a standard red mushroom. They look good under the actinics.

The rics are generally about 12-18" under the surface of the water, and the bulb is about 14" above the water temp. I've tried moving them around, but I never really get too much of a change. Its just weird that some open nicely, and others don't change much.

 

[Questin]

I have some hot pink ones that never seem to open up all the way. But this group of pink ones have a few that are in the shade a lot more then the others and they have fully expanded. If they get the light they need, no reason to expand fully I would have to say.